Biology and Feminism A Philosophical Introduction

This book provides a unique introduction to the study of relationships between gender and biology, a core part of the feminist science research tradition which emerged nearly half a century ago. Lynn Hankinson Nelson presents an accessible and balanced discussion of research questions, background assumptions, methods, and hypotheses about biology and gender with which feminist scientists and science scholars critically and constructively engage. Writing from the perspective of contemporary philosophy of science, she examines the evidence for and ethical implications of biological hypotheses about gender, and discusses relevant philosophical issues including understandings of scientific objectivity, the nature of scientific reasoning, and relationships between biological research and the scientific and social contexts in which it is pursued. Clear and comprehensive, this volume addresses the engagements of feminist scientists and science scholars with a range of disciplines, including developmental and evolutionary biology, medicine, neurobiology, and primatology.

List of figures; Acknowledgements; Preface; 1. Conceptual preliminaries; 2. Sexual selection: Darwin; 3. Sexual selection: parental investment theory and human sociobiology; 4. Primatology; 5. Developmental biology; 6. Medicine; 7. Neurobiology; 8. Evolutionary psychology; 9. Socially responsible science and socially relevant philosophy of science; Bibliography; Index.

Lynn Hankinson Nelson is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Washington. She has published Who Knows (1990) and numerous articles on feminist science scholarship. She is co-author of On Quine (1999), and is co-editor of Feminism, Science, and the Philosophy of Science (1997) and of a special issue of Hypatia on Feminist Science Studies (2004).