Abstract

The feminist critique of reason has formed a large part of the dramatic expansion in the literature of feminist philosophy since the early 1980s. The critique has been controversial. It has often been seen – both by its practitioners and by its outraged opponents – as a critique of prevailing ideals and practices of philosophy. Some have seen it as the legitimate expression of the concerns of women alienated from, and marginalized within, the prevailing structures of professional philosophy. Others have seen in it nothing but a perversely reasoned commitment to irrationalism. Here the close connections between ideals of reason and the self‐definition of philosophy can make it difficult to get the issues clear.