The Roots of Political Epistemology

This on-going research project is dedicated to the development of political epistemology as a field in which philosophy, social sciences and humanities meet thanks to common questions about the connection between truth and politics. So far, however, the advances from very different areas of philosophy or social sciences and humanities have largely taken place without dialogue with each other and thus give away valuable insights. I pursue the hypothesis that we find the fundamental premise of political epistemology – that truth and politics or epistemology and political philosophy are intertwined – in at least six different research fields. In each case, the discussions conducted there show a development trend towards a general political epistemology, but in each case this development is – for different reasons – not (yet) fully completed.

The first of these “roots” of political epistemology can be located in the field of postpositivist philosophy of science. After Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), a strand of scientific-philosophical work emerged that analyzed science primarily in terms of its activity and not in terms of its knowledge, whether in the emphasis on experiments (Ian Hacking, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger), models (Nancy Cartwright) or scientific practices (Bruno Latour, Josef Rouse). The role of politics and power in the production of scientific knowledge is emphasized, without reducing knowledge to power, and thus the basic argumentative feature of political epistemology is present, although the consequences for concepts such as knowledge and truth on the one hand and politics or society on the other hand are not explicitly drawn. In this respect, the transition to a political epistemology is stuck halfway.

A second root is Frankfurt School critical theory with its postulate that epistemology without social theory is idealistic and social theory without epistemology is dogmatic. But neither Max Horkheimer nor Theodor W. Adorno ever spelled out their insight into the need for a mutual transformation of epistemology and social theory, and after Jürgen Habermas’s last foray in Knowledge and Interest (1968), the critical theory of Frankfurt School hardly concerned itself with its epistemological presuppositions anymore – a remarkable circumstance when you consider that it essentially propagates alternative knowledge production as an emancipatory project.

The third root is feminist epistemology. Originating as a critique of androcentric scientific practices and confronted with the task of finding an explanation for the epistemic successes of feminist science, it elaborated theoretical terms and positions in order to reflect the political and epistemic dimensions of scientific practices without reducing one to the other. Feminist standpoint theory or Donna Haraway’s notion of situated knowledge are just two of the most prominent proposals. What is particularly interesting for my project is that feminist epistemology has recently increasingly seen itself as an intersectional research program, i.e. it also examines the influence of race and class on the production of knowledge – a generalizing movement towards political epistemology.

A fourth root is French poststructuralism, which partly inherits the French tradition of historical epistemology (e.g. Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem). Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault take up these considerations, but focus on the political struggles in and around knowledge. While Althusser still believes that he can draw a definitive line between ideology and “pure science”, Foucault analyzes the politically fought conditions for the existence of knowledge practices in general. However, the epistemological questions in French post-structuralism were quickly subordinated to the political ones and therefore the consequences of their own reflections towards a political epistemology were hardly developed.

Fifth, there are tentative moves towards political epistemology from analytical epistemology. Since the 1980s, some have tried to overcome the individualism and hyperrationalism of traditional epistemology, often by moving to social epistemology. There is also increasing interest in moral and political questions in analytical epistemology, such as epistemic justice (Miranda Fricker) or ideologically distorted knowledge (Sally Haslanger). These developments move classical epistemology from within towards a political epistemology.

Sixth, finally, postcolonial theory has advanced the insight into the connection between knowledge production and political rule towards a political epistemology insofar as it posits the need for resistance to colonial scientific practices and the development of alternative forms of knowledge (Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Walter D. Mignolo). However, as in French post-structuralism, from which these works are partly inspired, epistemological questions are often subordinated to political ones, rather than given equal treatment.

Back to the overall project Political Epistemology.