Standpoint Epistemology/Standpoint Phenomenology

In this chapter, I present some background on standpoint epistemology, highlighting in particular three of its key commitments: the thesis of situated knowledge, the achievement thesis, and the thesis of inverted privilege. This chapter articulates these theses in detail and presents an argument for their plausibility before showing how these might be harnessed for a project of standpoint phenomenology. I use Helen Ngo’s work to show how social location can affect one’s ability to interpret and understand phenomenological concepts. In the example I present, Ngo does not uncover a new condition underlying experience, but she draws on her own experience of racism to offer a better way of interpreting and understanding the concepts of habit and sedimentation developed by Merleau-Ponty. In the chapters that follow, I will expand on the idea of standpoint by introducing three methodologies that harness the power of being an outsider-within to produce novel insights into the structures of and relation between Dasein and the world.