Rethinking of scientific epistemology as an alt? Reject the omniscient viewpoint that currently happens; Resolves the objectivity link.

Because this view challenges not only the fundamental principles of sciences, but also the fundamentals of their place in society, it is difficult to imagine what de-gendered science would look like.105 Meeting this set of objections requires not merely re-thinking scientific epistemology from the ground up, but thinking entirely "outside the box" of our current social positioning of science. Such an approach, as suggested by Donna Haraway, rejects the feasibility of an omniscient viewpoint or "god trick" in considering either scientific knowledge or technological practice.106 Haraway's approach embraces the concept of "situated knowledge," which only exists in a specific context and cannot be evaluated without reference to that context.107 Haraway argues that it is critical to take into account the network of contributors, collaborators, influences, and ingredients that attend any insight, innovation, or intuition.108 Abstracting away the network of inputs to knowledge creates a false sense of objectivity that invites political manipulation. Consequently, Haraway argues that we must be satisfied with "partial perspective" rather than objective perspectives, and indeed regard the concrete grounding of situated, partial perspectives as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.109

Haraway's approach offers a potential remedy to MacKinnon's concern that the objective stance allows the observer to project onto the object of consideration his own desires and expectations. A situated context takes account of the observer's relationship to the observed and indeed moves the subject of observation from the category of passive object to active participant in knowledge development. Haraway takes particular note of the relationship between human and material actors in the development of technology.110 Drawing in part on concepts from actor-network theory111, Haraway argues that technology must be viewed as a co-construction between humans and non-humans.112 The material world does not merely reflect the conditions and expectations of human actors, but must be recognized as having its own character, possibly even its own type of agency. Haraway invokes the image of the legendary Native American Coyote or Trickster as the metaphor to visualize the participatory, if perhaps non-volitional, nature of material agency.113 Mythologically, the Trickster represents a non-human entity that behaves in unexpected and disruptive fashion. In Haraway's conception of materiality, the Trickster archetype underscores the independent and unruly contributions of material participants to invention and discovery, reminding us, as Karen Barad puts it, that "the world kicks back."114