Descartes has been a particular target of these sorts of critique.

Descartes has been a particular target of these sorts of critique.3 Second, there has been an attempt to emphasize the importance of women philosophers throughout history.

A major accomplishment in this program was the publication of Mary Ellen Waith's three-volume A History of Women Philosophers'4 Feminist philosophy of science and epistemology has for the most part sought to refute claims to the objectivity of science and knowledge, and to identify gender bias in the works of scientists and philosophers.

Modeled on the Marxist idea that culture is a superstructure that reflects class interests, feminist 'standpoint theories' advocate the idea that a specifically feminine view of the world is possible when science is practiced from a woman's perspective.5 A current topic of debate in feminist philosophy of science and epistemology is whether emphasis on the uniqueness of the female perspective implies relativism or a denial of objective truth.

Feminist approaches to ethics place a strong emphasis on politics. They are more concerned with power than goodness, and often provide criticism of the ways in which traditional ethics con- tributes to the subordination and oppression of women.

Allison Jagger, for example, suggests that feminist ethics should provide guides to action that will subvert the subordination of women.6 Lesbian feminists have proposed a feminist ethics based on the proposition that women cannot enter a relationship with men without becoming victims of subjugation, and that lesbian communities should construct their own ethics on the basis of a quest for freedom and self-identity rather than the good, and choice rather than duty.7 Lesbians have played an important role in the feminist movement, and although not all feminists are advocates of lesbianism, lesbianism is generally condoned by feminists as an implication of the attack on traditional gender roles' Feminists have also been critical of those who have proposed a particularly feminine ethics.

For example, the renowned moral psychologist, Carol Gilligan, has proposed that an ethics of care is more suitable to explain the moral development of girls than the ethics of justice used by her mentor, Lawrence Kohlberg, to explain the moral development of boys.