Grandma Knows Best: The Epistemology of Women's Folk Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

This project discusses the relation between women's folk beliefs and practices and knowledge. In particular, the project presents the view that, while these practices and beliefs have been often considered untrustworthy and unreliable, they constitute an example of both practical and experiential knowledge. In this respect, this project discusses how these alternative, non-propositional forms of knowledge have been contested by traditional epistemologists. In response to this, the project offers a view of how these forms of knowledge can be considered as such, and how they offer a path to expand the concept of knowledge beyond the confines of the classical definition of "justified true belief". Having asserted the epistemic relevance of non-propositional knowledge, the project finishes by discussing some of the factors that may have affected the lack of credibility and trust ascribed to women's folk knowledge.