Transforming Knowledge

by Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich

Transforming Knowledge suggests that education can serve neither the quest for knowledge nor the promise of a genuinely democratic system until some very basic intellectual errors are uncovered and corrected. Examining the heritage of a tradition created primarily by white Euro-American men who considered themselves the norm and the ideal for all humankind, Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich identifies these errors, characterizes them, and demonstrates how they work to distort and limit our knowledge. She cites work primarily by feminist scholars and activists, but also from ethnic, peace, and ecological studies, and argues that a reorientation of education and thus thinking and thus knowledge makes sense. This book is the result of more than twenty years of work in higher education during which the author talked with thousands of faculty members, administrators, students, and community people about the necessity to transform the curriculum in this country. Drawing also on her years of work with Hannah Arendt and on Dewey, Kant, Plato, and Socrates, Minnich confronts the "dominant meaning system" that perpetuates errors in thinking, particularly faulty generalization and universalization, circular reasoning, mystified concepts, and partial knowledge. In light of the heated debate in which such critics as William Bennett and Allen Bloom charge that a return to "the classics" is the only acceptable route for education, Transforming Knowledge offers a philosophical analysis of the cultural, intellectual, political tradition behind our curriculum. Minnich warns that it is in and through education that a culture, and polity, not only tries to perpetuate but enacts the kinds of thinking it welcomes, and discards and/or discredits the kinds it fears.

Genres: Education, Philosophy, School

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1990

Reviews

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich is the author of numerous works and the Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the Union Graduate School in Vermont. Transforming lays out a formula that can be used to show how hidden biases and power hierarchies operate and maintain power within societies. By highlighting how errors in ‘thinking’ occur, Minnich helps us to notice the errors in our own thinking. She explains how - through faulty generalizations, circular reasoning, mystified concepts, and partial knowledge – individuals and the dominant culture reinforces the status quo and makes it very difficult for new ideas and social concepts to take root. This is an imperative read for those interested in epistemology, women studies, social change, and learning; the concepts within this book can be applied in many different fields to show how the dominant culture operates.

[Lorette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the seminal book on how White, euroamerican centric, paternalistic, sexist thinking pervades our culture and all our culture produces. We have made progress, but Minnich encourages the new academy to transform knowledge radically, changing our knowledge constructs and our language. Our thinking errors are supported by four main processes: overgeneralization, partial knowledge, circular thinking, and mystified concepts. I found mystified concepts the most intriguing, and I have reread that section, where she discusses concepts that have come to mean more that just the words - sex, gender, man, woman, Liberal Arts, war are a few she specifies.

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A definite favorite -
Teaches how to look at the root of issues and not get caught up on definitions -
Teaches how to uncover why issues, institutions, values are assumed to mean certain things -
Relevant book in all areas of social life: race, gender, sex, education, politics, history...

[Vampire-lk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woot woot!! Wrote my last essay for this book!!!!!!

Was a good book overall! Great examples & points made! Granted would never read this outside of school or probably ever again! Enjoyed it over some of my other books assigned not as dry or dull as some!!

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry in parts, but it's ultimately worth the read for its four (five?) points on errors of dominant traditions.