Gender And Knowledge: Elements of a Postmodern Feminism

Contemporary intellectuals in a wide range of different disciplines frequently proclaim the current "crisis'' of western thought. This crisis is defined in many different ways, but in recent years it is usually cast in terms of the opposition between modernism and postmodernism. Although many critics argue that the debate is unresolvable because the participants cannot agree on precise definitions of either "modern" or "postmodern," the broad themes of the dispute are nevertheless clear. Most of the participants agree that the dispute assumed its current form with the work of Nietzsche. Nietzsche's questioning of the Enlightenment-humanist legacy that is the hallmark of modernity set the stage for the contemporary dispute. 1 Following Nietzsche postmoderns question the foundationalism and absolutism of modernism and propose instead a nondualistic, non-unitary approach to knowledge. "Postmodern" is not the only label that describes this critique. "Antifoundational" and "poststructural" are also used to characterize the attack on modernism. But however it is defined it is not an exaggeration to say that the entire spectrum of intellectual thought has been profoundly affected by this fundamental dispute.