"Men" and knowledge. Epistemological reflections for the study of "men" as generic subjects

Abstract

Stimulated by feminist philosopher Rae Langton and by men and women critical of what they call “the epistemology of modern scienceâ€, this essay raises the question: For the study of men, what are the epistemological consequences of the reflections on the “masculine†character of science and its connection with the maintaining of a patriarchal order? Can we under stand men as generic subjects from an epistemological framework which has been denounced by feminism for its incapacity to realize the situation of women? The author proposes the perspective of social construction as the possibility for articulating an approach that studies the category of “men†not as a transparent term, but rather as part of the struggles at the level of representation and organization of gender distinctions. The consequent instabilities, ambiguities and contradictions of such a social construction for male identity would, moreover, allow us to under stand the socio-cognitive possibilities of the study of men as generic subjects.