Synopsis
Transforming Knowledge suggests that education can serve neither the quest for knowledge nor the promise of a genuinely democratic system until some very basic intellectual errors are uncovered and corrected. Examining the heritage of a tradition created primarily by white Euro-American men who considered themselves the norm and the ideal for all humankind, Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich identifies these errors, characterizes them, and demonstrates how they work to distort and limit our knowledge. She cites work primarily by feminist scholars and activists, but also from ethnic, peace, and ecological studies, and argues that a reorientation of education and thus thinking and thus knowledge makes sense. This book is the result of more than twenty years of work in higher education during which the author talked with thousands of faculty members, administrators, students, and community people about the necessity to transform the curriculum in this country. Drawing also on her years of work with Hannah Arendt and on Dewey, Kant, Plato, and Socrates, Minnich confronts the "dominant meaning system" that perpetuates errors in thinking, particularly faulty generalization and universalization, circular reasoning, mystified concepts, and partial knowledge. In light of the heated debate in which such critics as William Bennett and Allen Bloom charge that a * to "the classics" is the only acceptable route for education, Transforming Knowledge offers a philosophical analysis of the cultural, intellectual, political tradition behind our curriculum. Minnich warns that it is in and through education that a culture, and polity, not only tries to perpetuate but enacts the kinds of thinking it welcomes, and discards and/or discredits the kinds it fears.
Review
"In Transforming Knowledge, Second Edition, Elizabeth Minnich dissects the fundamental errors underlying patriarchal thought systems and explains the resistances faced by those working towards an inclusive, truly democratic restructuring of knowledge. This welcome new edition offers the philosophical foundation for the urgent tasks of holistic thinking and a truly life- and earth-saving activism. A brilliant and indispensable book."―Gerda Lerner, Robinson-Edwards Professor of History, Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author, Creation of Patriarchy, Creation of Feminist Consciousness, and Fireweed: A Political Autobiography
"Transforming Knowledge, Second Edition enacts the urgent ethical project of demonstrating that informed, careful thinking and passionate politics are fundamental to envisioning a just, liberal education, and a democratic public university. Minnich challenges the reader in her gentle yet sharply critical arguments to examine the epistemic confusions and errors that underlie disciplinary knowledges, curricular strategies, and research paradigms. A brilliantly persuasive, deeply pedagogical book by one of the most insightful and compassionate feminist philosophers writing today."―Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Professor of Women's Studies, Syracuse University, and author of Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
