Final Paper Outline
(with my own example, which is less spelled out than yours should be!)
Thesis Statement:
In this paper I will argue that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave provides a contrasting position for thinking about epistemic advantage with the view put forward by Nancy Hartstock in The Feminist Standpoint, but the two positions are unified in the idea that “knowing more” can be a frustrating and negative experience.
What needs to be summarized for your reader from author/text one? Are there any terms that need to be defined?
Allegory of the Cave, with an emphasis on the idea that one gains knowledge insight *outside of the cave* away from those entrapped, and that one must *come back down* to share that knowledge with others.
*Here I would put 1-2 helpful quotes*
What needs to be summarized for your reader from author/text two? Are there any terms that need to be defined?
Epistemic advantage as the idea that some person or group of people have a more accurate picture of reality because of their social positioning. Bottom up rather than trickle down approach to consciousness raising.
A summary of the idea that those who are subordinated have epistemic insight because of their greater engagement with the material workings of social systems which therefore illuminate those systems. I would explain this idea through her attention to gendered division of labor.
*here I would put 1-2 helpful quotes*
Primary Argument to support thesis: The two authors are committed to different ideas of privilege and its relationship to epistemic advantage.
-evidence/example 1/quote: It is the man who leaves the cave, who is therefore socially privileged who achieves insight. This might make sense when thinking about how education increases one’s knowledge of the world. (quote, and/or example from my own life about, say, returning home as the one most educated in my family)
-evidence/example 2/quote: It is the person who is most subordinated who achieves insight. This makes sense when considering the gendered division of labor (quote, and/or example from today to better exemplify the point).
Secondary Argument to support thesis: Both theorists demonstrate the isolation which comes from seeing the world more accurately than others (often the “others” are the majority).
-evidence/example 1/quote: Quotes about the return from the cave and an example from life to substantiate the idea (coming home from a job that no one in your family understands or cares about).
*insert quote and example*
-evidence/example 2/quote: Quotes about the experience of being a woman trying to explain what its like to a man and feeling silenced/unheard from Hartstock’s text, plus my own example to substantiate (trying to explain the experience of sexual harassment to my brother, and having him not take it seriously, for ex).
*insert quote and example*
Significance/Stakes (Conclusion paragraph):
While these theorists take opposite views, seemingly, about who is more equipped to achieve epistemic advantage, those who are privileged or those who are marginalized, both theorists seem to understand the powerlessness that such insight might hold in a world in which others are not open to hearing what you know.
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