"Contemporary physicists, ethologists, and geologists collect evidence for or against hypotheses in ways different from those that medieval priests used to collect evidence for or against theological claims, yet it is difficult to identify or state in any formal way just what it is that is unique about the scientific methods".
This is the same Sandra Harding who called Isaac Newton's classic work Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy a "rape manual" (she seemed to see logic and reasoning as demeaning and brutal; rape is brutal, logic is brutal - it is harsh and dominating). Poor benighted creature.
More of Harding's wisdom:
"Scientific practices are common to every culture. Moreover, many phenomena of interest to science, though they can be predicted and explained, cannot be controlled – for example, the orbit of the sun and the location of fossils."
????? The moral of the story is that if you read too much postmodernism, your mind starts congealing and decomposing, and you say very silly things indeed.
After encountering Sandra Harding, would you like a breath of fresh air? Have a look at a bunch of women authors whose rationality, clarity and good sense shine through everything they write: Noretta Koertge, Daphne Patai, Susan Haack, and Cassandra Pinnick. Among many other things, they analyse what has gone wrong with Women's Studies programs, especially in academic contexts...
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