ABSTRACT
Defining "feminist philosophy of social science" is a tricky business, not least because philosophy of social science is itself such a sprawling, heterogeneous field. The social sciences are themselves enormously diverse in subject and method, and they raise issues that have been taken up by philosophers working in virtually all the major subfields and traditions of philosophy. Particularly sharp criticism was directed at research programs that had traditionally pinned their authority on claims to scientific status, emphasizing their reliance on rigorously "objective" research tools and methodologies modeled on those of the natural sciences. Although the requirement of empirical adequacy seems generic to empirical inquiry, feminist social scientists often make the point that it has an ethical, political justification as well. The feminist standpoint theory has faced a number of critical challenges since its initial formulation in the 1970s and 1980s.
