Mathematical Concepts and Societies of Agents

Exploring the Critiques of Traditional Science and Rationalism

Abstract

Historians and Sociologists such as Latour (1987) havecritiqued the traditional scientific method and emphasized that science canonly be understood through its practice. Feminist critics such as Gilligan(1986) and Belenky et al (1986) have criticized rationalism from apsychological perspective. They show how the formal knowledge of rationalistprocedures has created a “separate knowing” which has alienated many and womenin particular. They propose a revaluing of personal knowledge and what theycall “connected knowing” - a knowing in which the knower is an intimate part ofthe known.