Relational "(e)pistemologies" (Counterpoints)

Relational «(e)pistemologies» redefines epistemology in a non-transcendent manner and reclaims the traditional epistemological concerns of standards and criteria for warranting arguments and determining truth and falsity. These concerns must be reclaimed in order to make them visible and accountable as well as pragmatically useful on socially constructed grounds – not transcendental grounds. Thayer-Bacon’s book offers analysis and critique as well as redescription. She presents a pragmatist social feminist view, a relational perspective of knowing embedded within a discussion of many other relational views – personal, social and holistic, ecological, and scientific – which emphasize connections. Thayer-Bacon describes each of these forms of relationality, and she points to key scholars whose work highlights a certain relational form. She concludes with a discussion of the educational implications relational (e)pistemological theories have for education.