Wittgenstein and philosophy of education
a feminist re-assessment
pp. 379-388
in: Michael A. Peters, Jeff Stickney (eds), A companion to Wittgenstein on education, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
In the last two decades, feminist readings of Wittgenstein have produced a considerable body of work. Starting from a discussion of the challenges such endeavors meet with at a first glance, the paper will argue that these new interpretations not only prove productive with regard to our reading of Wittgenstein and feminist philosophy but can also inspire new approaches for philosophy of education . Bringing Wittgenstein into dialogue with feminist standpoint epistemology in different variations provides an interesting third path between the postmodernist rejection of objectivity and the empiricists' defense of a narrow concept of objectivity. Furthermore, with Wittgenstein's notion of language games, family resemblances , and aspect dawning, we can arrive at an understanding of feminist educational philosophy which turns from essentialist, foundationalist understandings to a more fluid, playful conception without losing sight of the importance of theory for the continuous renewal of our everyday educational practices .
