The thesis examines the problems of the "observer" and "objectivity." I review Thomas Kuhn's concept of "paradigm shift" in order to access wider debates in the history and philosophy of science concerning epistemological development. I argue against traditional notions of "objectivity" and "rationality" that proceed to "naturalize" the binary opposition between the natural sciences and other intellectual pursuits. To make this argument I draw from feminist critics of science, including Sandra Harding, Evelyn Fox Keller, and Donna Haraway, who reconsider more palpable conceptions of "objectivity" and "rationality" for a feminist science project. / Jonathan Crary's revisionist, and non-linear approach to a history of vision and the modern observer suggests that feminist critiques of science represent an epistemological shift imperfectly constituted in the nineteenth century. In conclusion, I analyze Donna Haraway's multi-dimensional approach to cultural, and feminist theory as a visual metaphor that resonates with the nineteenth-century technology of the stereoscope.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68107 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Johnson, Stacey |
| Contributors | Burnett, Ron (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Graduate Communications Program.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001397928, proquestno: AAIMM94358, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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