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What is Worth Knowing? Science, Knowledge, and Gendered and Indigenous Knowledge-Systems

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Abstract

This article asks, what is worth knowing? The concept of objectivity in contemporary philosophy of science is argued to de-value indigenous knowledge-systems and gendered approaches. Community bias is argued to confound rogue research with gendered and indigenous situatedness. This problem is resolved using the innovation of ‘ecosystem services.’ Technoscience is explained as the appropriation of science by capital interests and strong critique from Vandana Shiva in the global South is provided. Finally, because philosophers of science resist discussion of sociopolitical issues, the “very notion of philosophy of science” is argued to be in crisis caused by limited understanding of ‘knowledge’ that has been reduced to post-Enlightenment science, and by neglect of the broader human context within which the sciences work.

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Correspondence to Tricia Glazebrook.

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Glazebrook, T. What is Worth Knowing? Science, Knowledge, and Gendered and Indigenous Knowledge-Systems. Axiomathes 31, 727–741 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-021-09597-w

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