100-691: WGS may refer to: Education [ edit ] Women's and Gender Studies , a field of study at universities worldwide Schools [ edit ] Wisbech Grammar School , an independent school in Cambridgeshire, England Withington Girls' School , a girls' school in Fallowfield, Manchester, England Wolverhampton Grammar School , an independent school in Wolverhampton, England Science and technology [ edit ] Whole genome sequencing ,
200-596: A Marxist viewpoint, Karl Marx had expressed a notion in which believed that those in power have the inability to understand the perspectives of those whom they hold power. Providing that standpoint theory acknowledges the male incapability of understanding the oppression in which women face in society. Transnational feminism is concerned with the flow of social, political, and economic equality of women and men across borders; directly in response to globalization, neoliberalism, and imperialism. Women's studies began incorporating transnational feminist theory into its curricula as
300-632: A New Era (DAWN), a network for feminist academics and activists focused on the Global South , created in 1984. African scholars among DAWN's founding members were Fatema Mernissi (Morocco), Pala Okeyo (Kenya), and Marie-Angélique Savané (Senegal). These scholars inspired a second group of researchers and activists, which included: Rudo Gaidzanwa (Zimbabwe), Ayesha Imam (Nigeria), Patricia McFadden (Eswatini), Amina Mama (Nigeria), Takyiwaa Manuh (Ghana), Maria Nzomo (Kenya), and Charmaine Pereira (Nigeria). The University of Ghana established
400-475: A PhD in the field. In 1956, Australian feminist Madge Dawson took up a lectureship in the Department of Adult Education at Sydney University and began researching and teaching on the status of women. Dawson's course, "Women in a Changing World", which focused on the socio-economic and political status of women in western Europe, becoming one of the first women's studies courses. In 2015 at Kabul University ,
500-612: A broadly physicalist or scientific materialist framework, producing rival accounts of how best to accommodate the mind , including functionalism , anomalous monism , and identity theory . Scientific materialism is often synonymous with, and has typically been described as, a reductive materialism . In the early 21st century, Paul and Patricia Churchland advocated a radically contrasting position (at least in regard to certain hypotheses): eliminative materialism . Eliminative materialism holds that some mental phenomena simply do not exist at all, and that talk of such phenomena reflects
600-409: A critical theoretical fold dominated by poststructuralist theories of language and discourse. Scholars such as Mel Y. Chen and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson have critiqued this body of new materialist literature for neglecting to consider the materiality of race and gender in particular. Métis scholar Zoe Todd , as well as Mohawk (Bear Clan, Six Nations) and Anishinaabe scholar Vanessa Watts, query
700-674: A feminist standpoint, agency may be viewed as an attempt to equalize the one-sided oppression that has characterized first wave feminism. Feminists use agency in attempt to create new forms of autonomy and dependence from the reshaping of gender relations that is taking place in global society. Women's studies acknowledges the lack of agency in which women historically possessed, due to hierarchical positions in society. Feminists are actively making an effort to increase gender equality, as it may result in expanding social agency for all women. Materialist theory derives from 1960s and 1970s social work in feminism. Materialism possesses significant ties to
800-559: A food festival World Group Securities , the broker-dealer affiliate of World Financial Group (WFG) and a member of AEGON Group Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title WGS . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WGS&oldid=1224042617 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
900-563: A foundation of women's studies. Increasingly social justice has become a key component of women's studies courses, programs, and departments. Social justice theory is concerned with the fight for just communities, not on the individual level, but for the whole of society. Women's studies students engage in social justice projects, although some scholars and critics are concerned about requiring students to engage in both mandated activism and/or social justice work. Women's studies not only focus on concepts such as domestic violence, discrimination in
1000-416: A global effort. Furthermore, a transnational feminist perspective perpetuates that a lack of attention to the cultural and economic injustices of gender, as a result of globalization, may aid in the reinforcing of global gender inequalities; though, this can only come about when one occupies globally privileged subject positions. Since its inception and connection with the women's movement, activism has been
1100-622: A guide outlining the 17 then-existing undergraduate courses, 1 postgraduate option, four college of education offers and six polytechnics courses in Women's Studies – often called 'women in society' – in the United Kingdom. They compiled the guide from surveys of UK universities and adding to research previously published by Sue Beardon and Erika Stevenson for the National Union of Students in 1974. A part time postgraduate Diploma in Women's Studies
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#17328447327131200-518: A laboratory process that determines the complete DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time World Geodetic System , a reference frame for the earth for use in geodesy and navigation Wideband Global SATCOM , a United States and Australian military communication satellite system Water gas shift reaction , a chemical reaction of carbon monoxide and water vapor into carbon dioxide and hydrogen Other [ edit ] Watergardens railway station , Melbourne World Gourmet Summit ,
1300-408: A man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of
1400-650: A monist ontology, instead espousing the ontological separation of matter and space (i.e. that space is "another kind" of being). Wang Chong (27 – c. 100 AD) was a Chinese thinker of the early Common Era said to be a materialist. Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta (6th century) in his work Tattvopaplavasimha ( The Upsetting of All Principles ) refuted the Nyāya Sūtra epistemology. The materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400; when Madhavacharya compiled Sarva-darśana-samgraha ( A Digest of All Philosophies ) in
1500-426: A new turn in materialism in his 1841 book The Essence of Christianity , which presented a humanist account of religion as the outward projection of man's inward nature. Feuerbach introduced anthropological materialism , a version of materialism that views materialist anthropology as the universal science . Feuerbach's variety of materialism heavily influenced Karl Marx , who in the late 19th century elaborated
1600-559: A research facility for women scholars and provided publishing for their works. From the early 1980s, women like Juanita Barreto Gama , Guiomar Dueñas Vargas , Florence Thomas , Magdalena León Gómez , María Martínez , Donny Meertens , Yolanda Puyana Villamizar [ wikidata ] , María Himelda Ramírez and Ana Rico de Alonso worked to create an interdisciplinary field of feminist study in Colombia . First they met informally, then were able to gain official recognition in 1985 as
1700-499: A result of these pedagogies, women's studies students leave university with a tool set to make social change and do something about power inequalities in society. Notable women's studies scholars include Charlotte Bunch , Patricia Hill Collins , bell hooks , Angela Davis , Cherríe Moraga , Audre Lorde , Adrienne Rich , and Barbara Ransby . In the book Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies , thirty Women's Studies academics came together to criticise
1800-446: A spurious " folk psychology " and introspection illusion . A materialist of this variety might believe that a concept like "belief" has no basis in fact (e.g. the way folk science speaks of demon-caused illnesses). With reductive materialism at one end of a continuum (our theories will reduce to facts) and eliminative materialism at the other (certain theories will need to be eliminated in light of new facts), revisionary materialism
1900-410: A variety of topics, including popular culture, women in the economy, reproductive and environmental justice , and women's health across the lifespan. Women's studies programs are involved in social justice work and often design curricula that are embedded with theory and activism outside of the classroom setting. Some women's studies programs offer internships that are community-based allowing students
2000-428: A way to disrupt and challenge the ways in which knowledge regarding gender is prioritized, transmitted, and circulated in the field and academy. Transnational feminist theory is continually challenging the traditional divides of society, in which are crucial to ongoing politics and cultural beliefs. A key recognition advanced from the transnational feminist perspective is that gender is, has been, and will continue to be,
2100-524: Is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature , and that all things, including mental states and consciousness , are results of material interactions of material things. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are caused by physical processes, such as the neurochemistry of the human brain and nervous system , without which they cannot exist. Materialism directly contrasts with monistic idealism , according to which consciousness
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#17328447327132200-521: Is a philosophy of materialism from classical antiquity that was a major forerunner of modern science. Though ostensibly a deist , Epicurus affirmed the literal existence of the Greek gods in either some type of celestial "heaven" cognate from which they ruled the universe (if not on a literal Mount Olympus), and his philosophy promulgated atomism , while Platonism taught roughly the opposite, despite Plato's teaching of Zeus as God . Materialism belongs to
2300-571: Is a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity in people, human experiences, and society. Associated with the third wave of feminism, Kimberlé Crenshaw 's theory of intersectionality has become the key theoretical framework through which various feminist scholars discuss the relationship of between one's social and political identities such as gender, race, age, and sexual orientation, and received societal discrimination. Intersectionality posits that these relationships must be considered to understand hierarchies of power and privilege, as well as
2400-574: Is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else." Werner Heisenberg wrote: "The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct 'actuality' of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible ... Atoms are not things." Some 20th-century physicists (e.g., Eugene Wigner and Henry Stapp ), and some modern physicists and science writers (e.g., Stephen Barr , Paul Davies , and John Gribbin ) have argued that materialism
2500-651: Is anything particularly "new" about "new materialism", as Indigenous and other animist ontologies have attested to what might be called the "vibrancy of matter" for centuries. Others, such as Thomas Nail , have critiqued "vitalist" versions of new materialism for depoliticizing "flat ontology" and being ahistorical. Quentin Meillassoux proposed speculative materialism , a post-Kantian return to David Hume also based on materialist ideas. The nature and definition of matter —like other key concepts in science and philosophy—have occasioned much debate: One challenge to
2600-399: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Women%27s and Gender Studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender ; systems of privilege and oppression; and
2700-425: Is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in men's better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange. They are to be sought, not in
2800-471: Is flawed due to certain recent findings in physics, such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory . According to Gribbin and Davies (1991): Then came our Quantum theory, which totally transformed our image of matter. The old assumption that the microscopic world of atoms was simply a scaled-down version of the everyday world had to be abandoned. Newton's deterministic machine was replaced by a shadowy and paradoxical conjunction of waves and particles, governed by
2900-413: Is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another. Modern philosophical materialists extend the definition of other scientifically observable entities such as energy , forces , and the spacetime continuum ; some philosophers, such as Mary Midgley , suggest that the concept of "matter" is elusive and poorly defined. During the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extended
3000-409: Is from the feminist perspective, claiming that social conditions of gender are historically situated, as well as subjected to intervention and change. Materialist feminism specifically focuses on social arrangements that accentuate the role of women notably the aspects of family, domesticity, and motherhood. Materialism analyzes gendering discourses in which promote women's marginalization; Thus, one of
3100-455: Is matter and void, and all phenomena result from different motions and conglomerations of base material particles called atoms (literally "indivisibles"). De Rerum Natura provides mechanistic explanations for phenomena such as erosion, evaporation, wind, and sound. Famous principles like "nothing can touch body but body" first appeared in Lucretius's work. Democritus and Epicurus did not espouse
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3200-399: Is missing from the mathematical formalism of our best description of the world. "Materialist" physicalists also believe that the formalism describes fields of insentience. In other words, the intrinsic nature of the physical is non-experiential. Most Hindus and transcendentalists regard all matter as an illusion, or maya , blinding humans from the truth. Transcendental experiences like
3300-410: Is often associated with reductionism , according to which the objects or phenomena individuated at one level of description, if they are genuine, must be explicable in terms of the objects or phenomena at some other level of description—typically, at a more reduced level. Non-reductive materialism explicitly rejects this notion, taking the material constitution of all particulars to be consistent with
3400-546: Is related to the fields of gender studies , feminist studies, and sexuality studies, and more broadly related to the fields of cultural studies , ethnic studies , and African-American studies . Women's studies courses are now offered in over seven hundred institutions in the United States, and globally in more than forty countries. The erasure of women and their activities in Africa was complex. When women's studies emerged in
3500-617: Is somewhere in the middle. Contemporary continental philosopher Gilles Deleuze has attempted to rework and strengthen classical materialist ideas. Contemporary theorists such as Manuel DeLanda , working with this reinvigorated materialism, have come to be classified as new materialists . New materialism has become its own subfield, with courses on it at major universities, as well as numerous conferences, edited collections and monographs devoted to it. Jane Bennett 's 2010 book Vibrant Matter has been particularly instrumental in bringing theories of monist ontology and vitalism back into
3600-401: Is the fundamental substance of nature. Materialism is closely related to physicalism —the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Philosophical physicalism has evolved from materialism with the theories of the physical sciences to incorporate forms of physicality in addition to ordinary matter (e.g. spacetime , physical energies and forces , and exotic matter ). Thus, some prefer
3700-498: Is the theory of chaos, which has recently gained widespread attention. The objections of Davies and Gribbin are shared by proponents of digital physics , who view information rather than matter as fundamental. The physicist and proponent of digital physics John Archibald Wheeler wrote, "all matter and all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe." Some founders of quantum theory, such as Max Planck , shared their objections. He wrote: As
3800-565: The Axial Age ( c. 800–200 BC). In ancient Indian philosophy , materialism developed around 600 BC with the works of Ajita Kesakambali , Payasi , Kanada and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy. Kanada became one of the early proponents of atomism . The Nyaya – Vaisesika school (c. 600–100 BC) developed one of the earliest forms of atomism (although their proofs of God and their positing that consciousness
3900-485: The University of Buea (Cameroon), and the University of Zambia (Zambia). The first accredited women's studies course in the U.S. was held in 1969 at Cornell University . After a year of intense organizing of women's consciousness raising groups , rallies, petition circulating, and operating unofficial or experimental classes and presentations before seven committees and assemblies, the first women's studies program in
4000-537: The University of Buenos Aires . In 1987, María Fernández became the chair of UBA's degree program in women's studies. In 1992, the Area Interdisciplinaria de Estudios de la Mujer (AIEM, Interdisciplinary Area of Women's Studies), which became the Instituto Interdisciplinario de Estudios de Género (Interdisciplinary Institute of Gender Studies) in 1997, was founded at UBA linking academics from
4100-404: The feminist movement that compelled the formation of women's studies found itself at odds with the institutionalized academic feminism of the 1990s. As "woman" as a concept continued to be expanded, the exploration of social constructions of gender led to the field's expansion into both gender studies and sexuality studies. The field of women's studies continued to grow during the 1990s and into
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4200-487: The "unhealthy conditions and self-destructive tendencies that appear to be intrinsic to many Women's Studies programs". Professors spoke of being unable to "discuss their concerns about this belligerent anti-intellectualism with other faculty members in Women's Studies", with claims of a "constant emphasis on political purity.... from both students and professors". [REDACTED] Learning materials related to Women's Studies at Wikiversity Materialism Materialism
4300-439: The 14th century, he had no Cārvāka (or Lokāyata) text to quote from or refer to. In early 12th-century al-Andalus , Arabian philosopher Ibn Tufail ( a.k.a. Abubacer) discussed materialism in his philosophical novel , Hayy ibn Yaqdhan ( Philosophus Autodidactus ), while vaguely foreshadowing historical materialism . In France, Pierre Gassendi (1592–1665) represented the materialist tradition in opposition to
4400-457: The 1960s and 1970s. The first generation of scholars focused on establishing and legitimizing Africa's precolonial history. They also questioned whether the Western construct of gender applied in Africa or whether the concepts of gender existed in pre-colonial Africa. Ifi Amadiume 's work Male Daughters, Female Husbands (1987) and Oyeronke Oyewumi 's The Invention of Women (1997) are some of
4500-469: The 1960s-70s development of women's studies, "in the summer of 1969 Juliet Mitchell taught a short course entitled 'The Role of Women in Society' in the 'Anti University', which had been organised by radical academics as part of the student protest movement". Maggie Humm identifies this summer course as "Britain's first women's studies course". In 1975, Margarita Rendel, Oonagh Hartnett, Zoe Fairbairns, wrote
4600-697: The 1980s and continued expanding throughout the 1990s. In 1992, Brazilian academics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro launched Revista Estudos Feministas , one of the primary academic journals on gender in Brazil. Among the contributors for the inaugural issue were Ana Arruda Callado [ pt ] , Heloísa Buarque de Hollanda , Maria Carneiro da Cunha , Mary Garcia Castro [ pt ] , Rosiska Darcy de Oliveira , Valéria Lamego , Miriam Moreira Leite , Leila Linhares , Heleieth Saffioti , Bila Sorj , and others. The political aims of
4700-418: The 1980s as a way of critically examining the production of knowledge and its resulting effects on practices of power. Standpoint theory operates from the idea that knowledge is socially situated and underrepresented groups and minorities have historically been ignored or marginalized when it comes to the production of knowledge. Emerging from Marxist thought, standpoint theory argues for analysis that challenges
4800-505: The 1980s, it focused on recovering women from the obscurity of all of African history caused by colonialism and the "patriarchal social systems" left behind in Africa after decolonization. Because systems prevailed which supported boys' education over that of girls, in the era following independence there were few women who could read and write. Those who could were not encouraged to become professionals and often resorted to activism to address educational and other disadvantages women faced in
4900-558: The 2000s with the expansion of universities offering majors, minors, and certificates in women's studies, gender studies, and feminist studies. The first official PhD program in Women's Studies was established at Emory University in 1990. As of 2012, there were 16 institutions offering a PhD in Women's Studies in the United States. Since then, UC Santa Cruz (2013), the University of Kentucky-Lexington (2013), Stony Brook University (2014), and Oregon State University (2016) also introduced
5000-782: The Centro de Estudios de la Mujer (Center for Women's Studies) in the psychology faculty at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The field was formalized with the creation of the Programa Universitario de Estudios de Género (PUEG, University Program on Gender Studies) in 1992, at the urging of academics like Gloria Careaga , Teresita de Barbieri , Graciela Hierro [ es ] , Araceli Mingo , Lorenia Parada , and Alicia Elena Pérez Duarte . Activists and researchers in Chile began meeting in 1978 with creation of
5100-653: The Círculo de la Mujer (Women's Circle). In 1984, they founded the Centro de Estudios de la Mujer (CEM, Center for Women's Studies) in Santiago to facilitate multi-disciplinary studies on women and gender. That same year, Virginia Vargas began teaching women's studies in Peru, and the following year, she along with Virginia Guzmán Barcos and others, founded the Flora Tristán Peruvian Women's Center . The center provided
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#17328447327135200-558: The Development and Women's Studies Program (DAWS) in 1989, which by 1996 offered both undergraduate and graduate level studies. After the demise of Apartheid , the University of Cape Town , South Africa established the African Gender Institute in 1996 to facilitate research and gender studies in Africa. By 2003, full departments dedicated to gender and women's studies had also been established at Makerere University (Uganda),
5300-847: The English department, administration and within the community. By 1974, San Diego State University faculty members began a nationwide campaign for the integration of the department. At the time, these actions and the field were extremely political. Before formalized departments and programs, many women's studies courses were advertised unofficially around campuses and taught by women faculty member – without pay – in addition to their established teaching and administrative responsibilities. Then, as in many cases today, faculty who teach in women's studies often hold faculty appointments in other departments on campus. The first scholarly journal in interdisciplinary women's studies, Feminist Studies , began publishing in 1972. The National Women's Studies Association (of
5400-774: The Grupo de Estudios Mujer y Sociedad (Women & Society Study Group) and finally in 1994, they launched the Programa de Estudios de Género, Mujer y Desarrollo (PGMD, Gender, Women and Development Studies Program) in the Human Sciences Department at the National University of Colombia . In 1985, activists in Argentina launched the "Introduction to Women's Studies" and a post-graduate seminar, "La construcción social del género sexual" (The Social Construction of Sexual Gender) at
5500-561: The Marxist theories of history, agency, and ideology; though, may be distinguished through the incorporation of language and culture to its philosophy. Materialism poses questions to both social analytics and social relations, in which may be found in the material conditions of any given society. In addition from examining from a gender standpoint, material conditions are studied in relation to realistic aspects of women's lives. A key aspect in which materialist feminists have revealed these relations
5600-573: The Politics of Empowerment (Collins). Alice Walker coined the term womanism to situate black women's experiences as they struggle for social change and liberation, while simultaneously celebrating the strength of black women, their culture, and their beauty. Patricia Hill Collin's contributed the concept of the " matrix of domination " to feminist theory, which reconceptualized race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression that shape experiences of privilege and oppression. Intersectionality
5700-593: The Polytechnic of North East London and at Preston Polytechnic. Veronica Beechey was recruited by the Open University in 1983 to initiate a women's studies course there. Current courses in Women's Studies in the United Kingdom can be found through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service . Early women's studies courses and curricula were often driven by the question "Why are women not included? Where are
5800-439: The United States and consistently held that mental states are brain states and that mental terms have the same referent as physical terms. The twentieth century has witnessed many materialist theories of the mental, and much debate surrounding them. But not all conceptions of physicalism are tied to verificationist theories of meaning or direct realist accounts of perception. Rather, physicalists believe that no "element of reality"
5900-480: The United States was established in 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University ). In conjunction with National Women's Liberation Movement , students and community members created the ad hoc committee for women's studies. The second women's studies program in the United States was established in 1971 at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. It was mostly formed through many efforts by women in
6000-503: The United States) was established in 1977. In 1977, there were 276 women's studies programs nationwide in the United States. The number of programs increased in the following decade, growing up to 530 programs in 1989, which included the program at the University of Puerto Rico founded by Margarita Benítez in 1986. Around the 1980s, universities in the U.S. saw the growth and development of women's studies courses and programs across
6100-539: The attempts of René Descartes (1596–1650) to provide the natural sciences with dualist foundations. There followed the materialist and atheist abbé Jean Meslier (1664–1729), along with the French materialists : Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751), Denis Diderot (1713–1784), Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714–1780), Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771), German-French Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789), and other French Enlightenment thinkers. In England, materialism
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#17328447327136200-417: The authority of political and social "truths". Standpoint theory, assumes that power lies solely within the hands of the male gender as the process of decision making in society is constructed exclusively for, and by men. An example of where standpoint theory presents itself in society is through the processes of political analysis, as this field of study is almost entirely controlled by men. Furthermore, from
6300-460: The class of monist ontology , and is thus different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism . For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism is in contrast to idealism , neutral monism , and spiritualism . It can also contrast with phenomenalism , vitalism , and dual-aspect monism . Its materiality can, in some ways, be linked to the concept of determinism , as espoused by Enlightenment thinkers. Despite
6400-407: The colonial orientation of the race for a "new" materialism. Watts in particular describes the tendency to regard matter as a subject of feminist or philosophical care as a tendency too invested in the reanimation of a Eurocentric tradition of inquiry at the expense of an Indigenous ethic of responsibility. Other scholars, such as Helene Vosters, echo their concerns and have questioned whether there
6500-422: The concept of historical materialism —the basis for what Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined as scientific socialism : The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth
6600-436: The concept of materialism to elaborate a materialist conception of history centered on the roughly empirical world of human activity (practice, including labor) and the institutions created, reproduced or destroyed by that activity. They also developed dialectical materialism , by taking Hegelian dialectics , stripping them of their idealist aspects, and fusing them with materialism (see Modern philosophy ). Materialism
6700-522: The concept of matter had merely changed, while others believed the conventional position could no longer be maintained. Werner Heisenberg said: "The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct 'actuality' of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible...atoms are not things." The concept of matter has changed in response to new scientific discoveries. Thus materialism has no definite content independent of
6800-562: The conventional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of field physics in the 19th century. Relativity shows that matter and energy (including the spatially distributed energy of fields) are interchangeable. This enables the ontological view that energy is prima materia and matter is one of its forms. In contrast, the Standard Model of particle physics uses quantum field theory to describe all interactions. On this view it could be said that fields are prima materia and
6900-766: The country at: Around the same time, women academics in Latin America began to form women's studies groups. The first chair of women's studies in Mexico was created in the political and social sciences faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1970. Starting in 1979, the Grupo Autónomo de Mujeres Universitarias (GAMU, Autonomous Group of University Women), which included both Mexican faculty and students began meeting periodically to discuss how feminism could be introduced to various campuses across
7000-442: The country while the field continued to grapple with backlash from both conservative groups and concerns from those within the women's movement about the white, existentialist , and heterosexual privilege of those in the academy. In Canada The first few university courses in Women's Studies were taught in the early 1970s. In 1984 the federal government established five regional endowed chairs in Women's Studies for each region of
7100-688: The country. In 1982, a women's studies program was created at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco . Similarly in 1983, activists in the Mexican feminist movement, including Lourdes Arizpe , Flora Botton , and Elena Urrutia , founded the Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer (PIEG, Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Program) at El Colegio de México in Mexico City. In 1984, academics formed
7200-464: The dialectical form of materialism. George Stack distinguishes between materialism and physicalism: In the twentieth century, physicalism has emerged out of positivism. Physicalism restricts meaningful statements to physical bodies or processes that are verifiable or in principle verifiable. It is an empirical hypothesis that is subject to revision and, hence, lacks the dogmatic stance of classical materialism. Herbert Feigl defended physicalism in
7300-480: The effects in which they manifest in an individual's life. Though events and conditions of social and political life are often thought to be shaped by one factor, intersectionality theorizes that oppression and social inequality are a result of how powerful individuals view the combination of various factors; emphasizing that discrimination is accounted for by power, not personal identity. Standpoint theory , also classified as feminist standpoint theory, developed in
7400-530: The energy is a property of the field. According to the dominant cosmological model, the Lambda-CDM model , less than 5% of the universe's energy density is made up of the "matter" the Standard Model describes, and most of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy , with little agreement among scientists about what these are made of. With the advent of quantum physics, some scientists believed
7500-460: The existence of real objects, properties or phenomena not explicable in the terms canonically used for the basic material constituents. Jerry Fodor held this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of basic physics. Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of Eurasia during what Karl Jaspers termed
7600-476: The experiences and conditions of women's lives. Theorists and writers such as bell hooks , Simone de Beauvoir , Patricia Hill Collins , and Alice Walker added to the field of feminist theory with respect to the ways in which race and gender mutually inform the experiences of women of color with works such as Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (hooks), In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens (Walker), and Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and
7700-432: The experiences of women at the center of inquiry through the use of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Feminist researchers acknowledge their role in the production of knowledge and make explicit the relationship between the researcher and the research subject. Feminist theory refers to the body of writing that works to address gender discrimination and disparities, while acknowledging, describing, and analyzing
7800-536: The faculties of Arts, Anthropology, Classics and Letters, Education, History, Languages, and Philosophy to encourage broader research and analysis of women in these fields. Hilda Habichayn founded the Centro de Estudios Históricos sobre las Mujeres (Center for Historical Studies on Women), which began in 1993 to offer the first master's degree in women's studies in Latin America. The first women's study program in Paraguay
7900-682: The first master's degree course in gender and women's studies in Afghanistan began. Elizabeth Bird traced the development of Women's Studies in the UK out of informal education run by the women's liberation movement (WLM), the Workers' Educational Association, "CR" or " consciousness raising " groups, left-wing activist groups, and extramural departments attached to universities and colleges. Bird notes that, according to feminist activists and scholars Anna Coote and Beatrix Campbell who interviewed many participants in
8000-718: The first works which sought to examine gender perceptions in Africa. In 1977, the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) was established to promote research on African women by African women. Scholars affiliated with the organization from its founding included: Simi Afonja (Nigeria), N'Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba (Ivory Coast), ( Bolanle Awe (Nigeria), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Nina Mba (Nigeria), Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie (Nigeria), Achola Pala Okeyo (Kenya), Filomena Steady (Sierra Leone), Fatou Sow (Senegal), and Zenebework Tadesse (Ethiopia). Other scholars joined Development Alternatives with Women for
8100-443: The large number of philosophical schools and their nuances, all philosophies are said to fall into one of two primary categories, defined in contrast to each other: idealism and materialism . The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality: the primary difference between them is how they answer two fundamental questions—what reality consists of, and how it originated. To idealists, spirit or mind or
8200-488: The laws of chance, rather than the rigid rules of causality. An extension of the quantum theory goes beyond even this; it paints a picture in which solid matter dissolves away, to be replaced by weird excitations and vibrations of invisible field energy. Quantum physics undermines materialism because it reveals that matter has far less "substance" than we might believe. But another development goes even further by demolishing Newton's image of matter as inert lumps. This development
8300-499: The learning process. Women's studies programs and courses are designed to explore the intersectionality of gender, race, sexuality, class and other topics that are involved in identity politics and societal norms through a feminist lens. Women's studies courses focus on a variety of topics such as media literacy, sexuality, race and ethnicity, history involving women, queer theory, multiculturalism and other courses closely related. Faculty incorporate these components into classes across
8400-449: The lives of subjects, however they identify, are constituted. At the core of these theories is the notion that however one identifies, gender, sex, and sexuality are not intrinsic, but are socially constructed. Major theories employed in women's studies courses include feminist theory , intersectionality , standpoint theory , transnational feminism , and social justice . Research practices associated with women's studies place women and
8500-482: The mid-19th century was German materialism , which included Ludwig Büchner (1824–1899), the Dutch-born Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893), and Carl Vogt (1817–1895), even though they had different views on core issues such as the evolution and the origins of life. Contemporary analytic philosophers (e.g. Daniel Dennett , Willard Van Orman Quine , Donald Davidson , and Jerry Fodor ) operate within
8600-525: The most influential aspects of materialist feminism is its attentiveness with questions of ideology and how they relate to history and agency. In most institutions, women's studies courses employ feminist pedagogy in a triad model of equal parts research, theory, and praxis. The decentralization of the professor as the source of knowledge is often fundamental to women's studies classroom culture. Students are encouraged to take an active role in "claiming" their education, taking responsibility for themselves and
8700-454: The objects of mind ( ideas ) are primary, and matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary—the product of matter acting upon matter. The materialist view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically by René Descartes ; by itself, materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice, it
8800-905: The opportunity to experience how institutional structures of privilege and oppression directly affects women's lives. Women's studies curricula often encourage students to participate in service-learning activities in addition to discussion and reflection upon course materials. However, Daphne Patai , from the University of Massachusetts Amherst , has criticized this aspect of women's studies programs, arguing that they place politics over education, stating "the strategies of faculty members in these programs have included policing insensitive language, championing research methods deemed congenial to women (such as qualitative over quantitative methods), and conducting classes as if they were therapy sessions." Since women's studies students analyze identity markers including gender, race, class, and sexuality, this often results in dissecting institutionalized structures of power. As
8900-480: The particular theory of matter on which it is based. According to Noam Chomsky , any property can be considered material, if one defines matter such that it has that property. The philosophical materialist Gustavo Bueno uses a more precise term than matter , the stroma. In Materialism and Empirio-Criticism , Lenin argues that the truth of dialectical materialism is unrelated to any particular understanding of matter. To him, such changes actually confirm
9000-582: The perception of Brahman are considered to destroy the illusion. Rudolf Peierls , a physicist who played a major role in the Manhattan Project , rejected materialism: "The premise that you can describe in terms of physics the whole function of a human being ... including knowledge and consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing." Erwin Schrödinger said, "Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness
9100-618: The philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch. Through his Dialectics of Nature (1883), Engels later developed a "materialist dialectic" philosophy of nature , a worldview that Georgi Plekhanov , the father of Russian Marxism , called dialectical materialism . In early 20th-century Russian philosophy , Vladimir Lenin further developed dialectical materialism in his 1909 book Materialism and Empirio-criticism , which connects his opponents' political conceptions to their anti-materialist philosophies. A more naturalist -oriented materialist school of thought that developed in
9200-893: The relationships between power and gender as they intersect with other identities and social locations such as race , sexual orientation , socio-economic class , and disability . Popular concepts that are related to the field of women's studies include feminist theory , standpoint theory , intersectionality, multiculturalism , transnational feminism , social justice , affect studies, agency , bio-politics , materialism , and embodiment. Research practices and methodologies associated with women's studies include ethnography , autoethnography , focus groups , surveys, community-based research, discourse analysis, and reading practices associated with critical theory , post-structuralism , and queer theory . The field researches and critiques different societal norms of gender , race , class, sexuality , and other social inequalities . Women's studies
9300-515: The term physicalism to materialism , while others use the terms as if they were synonymous . Discoveries of neural correlates between consciousness and the brain are taken as empirical support for materialism, but some philosophers of mind find that association fallacious or consider it compatible with non-materialist ideas. Alternative philosophies opposed or alternative to materialism or physicalism include idealism, pluralism , dualism , panpsychism , and other forms of monism . Epicureanism
9400-424: The ways in which women's personal lives reflect larger power structures. Since the 1970s, scholars of women's studies have taken post-modern approaches to understand gender and its intersections with race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age, and (dis)ability to produce and maintain power structures within society. With this turn, there has been a focus on language, subjectivity, and social hegemony, and how
9500-472: The women?". That is, as more women became more present in higher education as both students and faculty, questions arose about the male-centric nature of most courses and curricula. Women faculty in traditional departments such as history, English, and philosophy began to offer courses with a focus on women. Drawing from the women's movement's notion that "the personal is political", courses also began to develop around sexual politics, women's roles in society, and
9600-421: The workplace, and gender differences in the division of labor at home, but gives a foundation for understanding the root cause of these concepts, which is the first step to making for a better life for women. Agency may be defined as the capability to make choices individually and freely. An individual's agency may be restricted due to various social factors, such as gender, race, religion and social class. From
9700-528: Was developed in the philosophies of Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), and John Locke (1632–1704). Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) became one of the most important materialist philosophers in the 18th century. John "Walking" Stewart (1747–1822) believed matter has a moral dimension, which had a major impact on the philosophical poetry of William Wordsworth (1770–1850). In late modern philosophy , German atheist anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach signaled
9800-478: Was not material precludes labelling them as materialists). Buddhist atomism and the Jaina school continued the atomic tradition. Ancient Greek atomists like Leucippus , Democritus and Epicurus prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (99 – c. 55 BC) reflects the mechanistic philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. According to this view, all that exists
9900-587: Was offered by The Polytechnic of Central London from 1977, and in 1978 an MA course on the subject of 'Rights', including women's rights, was organised by Margarita Rendel at the London Institute of Education. In 1980, the University of Kent launched the first named MA degree in Women's Studies, with Mary Evans leading the development of the course. Following Kent, Bradford (1982), Sheffield City Polytechnic (1983), Warwick (1983) and York (1984) opened MA courses. In 1990, part-time BAs in Women's Studies launched at
10000-716: Was the Centro Paraguayo de estudios de la Mujer (Paraguayan Center of Women's Studies) at the Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción" . It was founded in 1983 by Olga Caballero , Manuelita Escobar , Marilyn Godoy and Edy Irigoitia . The Grupo de Estudios de la Mujer Paraguaya (GEMPA, Paraguayan Women's Studies Group) was founded at the Paraguayan Center for Sociological Studies in 1985 by Graziella Corvalán and Mirtha Rivarola . Gender studies also began to be established in universities in Brazil in
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