This article is about the American philosopher not the Australian sociologist and university administrator of the same name.

Sandra G. Harding (born 1935) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 philosopher of feminist

Feminist philosophy

Feminist philosophy refers to philosophy approached from a feminist perspective. Feminist philosophy involves both attempts to use the methods of philosophy to further the cause of the feminist movements, and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a...

 and postcolonial theory, epistemology, research methodology and philosophy of science

Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...

.

She has contributed to standpoint theory

Standpoint theory

Standpoint theory is a postmodern method for analyzing inter-subjective discourses. "Developed primarily by social scientists, especially sociologists & political theorists. It extends some of the early insights about consciousness that emerged from Marxist/socialist feminist theories and the wider...

 and to the multicultural

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

 study of science

Science studies

Science studies is an interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in a broad social, historical, and philosophical context. It is concerned with the history of academic disciplines, the interrelationships between science and society, and the alleged covert purposes...

. She is the author or editor of many books on these topics, and was one of the founders of the fields of feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology is concerned with the way in which gender influences our concept of knowledge and "practices of inquiry and justification". It comes under the umbrella of social epistemology, the broad set of approaches to the study of knowledge. Elisabeth Anderson argues that the concept of...

 and philosophy of science. Her ways of developing standpoint theory and stronger standards for objectivity

Objectivity (science)

Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...

 ("strong objectivity") have been influential in the social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

 as well as in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, and have created discussions in the natural sciences.

She currently is a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies is one of the professional graduate schools at the University of California, Los Angeles...

. Sandra Harding earned her PhD from New York University (NYU) in 1973.

Former Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women

UCLA Center for the Study of Women

-Organization :-Publications:* 1986 * 1995 Conference Proceedings * 1992 Conference Proceeding -Organization :-Publications:* 1986 * 1995 Conference Proceedings (UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations)* 1992 Conference Proceeding -Organization :-Publications:* 1986 * 1995 Conference...

 (1996–2000), and co-editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2000–2005), she previously taught at the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

 for many years, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Costa Rica

University of Costa Rica

The University of Costa Rica is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro, in the province of San José. It is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious institution of higher learning in...

, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

ETH Zurich

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

, Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

. She was an invited lecturer for Phi Beta Kappa in 2007-2008.

She has consulted to a number of international agencies on feminist and postcolonial science issues, including the Pan-American Health Organization, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 Commission on Science and Technology for Development. She was invited to co-author a chapter on "Science and Technology: The Gender Dimension" for the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Science Report 1996.

During what is known now as the "Science Wars

Science wars

The science wars were a series of intellectual exchanges, between scientific realists and postmodernist critics, about the nature of scientific theory which took place principally in the US in the 1990s...

", she was part of a debate regarding the value-neutrality of the sciences. This aspect of her work has been criticized by some scientists. Harding referred to Newton's

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

 Principia Mathematica as a "rape manual" in her 1986 book "The Science Question in Feminism", a characterization that she later said she regretted.

External links

• "Starting from Marginalized Lives: A Conversation with Sandra Harding" by Sidney I. Dobrin and Thomas Kent, JAC 15.2, Spring 1995.
• "Women, Science, and Society" by Sandra Harding, Science
  Science Magazine
  Science Magazine was a half-hour television show produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1975 to 1979.The show was hosted by geneticist David Suzuki, who previously hosted the daytime youth programme Suzuki On Science...
  
  , September 11, 1998.