Generating our knowledge contributions with an appropriate epistemology?
![JW](/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBMXdrQ2c9PSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--fc9a867179534e3b7c5b73025970afdcfc889220/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdDRG9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lKYW5CbFp3WTZCa1ZVT2hSeVpYTnBlbVZmZEc5ZmJHbHRhWFJiQjJrQmdHa0JnRG9LYzJGMlpYSjdCem9NY1hWaGJHbDBlV2xWT2dwemRISnBjRlE9IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--e579049eb7f20fc1070cc24f3215f2949d184302/jackimage.jpg%3F1492195474)
I'm wondering if we should research our own practice as we contribute to the Global Assembly and explicate our epistemologies? I'd like to work with Barbara Theyer-Bacon's ideas of a relational epistemology that is supported by a relational ontology - I'm hoping that you might like to work on this with me:
"A relational (e)pistemology is supported by a relational ontology, the unifying spiritual belief that we are one with the universe. I am suggesting that the relational ontology that supports a relational (e)pistemology needs to be foregrounded as a conscious part of the curriculum, so its influence can be carefully considered and critiqued. How do we teach students that all things are interconnected and inderdependent and to see themselves as jewels reflected in Indra’s net. How do we help students learn to recognize appearances that we take to be existent, separate, and permanent for what they are, delusions that cause us great suffering? There are many ways to teach a w/holistic curriculum: I do not think there is any one right way. (Thayer-Bacon, 2005, p. 259).
I have offered a feminist (e)pistemological theory that insists that knowers/subjects are fallible, that our criteria are corrigible, and that our standards are socially constructed, and thus continually in need of critique and reconstruction. I have argued that an (e)pistemology that rests on an assumption of fallibility entails pluralism, both in terms of there being no one final Answer at the end of inquiring, and also in terms of the need to be open and inclusive of others, in order to help us compensate for our own limiations. I have worked to help us understand caring’s connection to (e)pistemology, with caring reasoning, which I have compared to similar ideas such as Dewey’s ‘sympathetic,’ understanding’ and Benhabib’s ‘enlarged thinking.’ I have also tried to further develop Dewey’s idea of transactional relationships, and compare transactional relations to concepts such as ‘mutual causality’."
(Thayer-Bacon, 2005, p. 273).
Barbara Thayer-Bacon (2003) Relational (e)pistemologies. Oxford; Peter Lang.
Janel Seeley · Thu 18 May 2017 2:20PM
I love this idea Jack! I took a few classes under Barbara at UT and have always admired her work. Can you say more about what you are envisioning for this project?
Janel