Review of 'Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–2023)'

Science is Feminine

In a heartfelt appreciation of how much Professor Evelyn Fox Keller cared for science, which I began to appreciate thanks to Professor Vicedo's reflective and reflective-mode inducing obituary, which in turn brought me here to learn more about Professor Keller's seminal contribution to science: feminism. If I may, I'd like to begin with empathy. What subjective feelings got to do with objective facts, you might naively ask? I can't wish away my excitement in substantiating the thesis alluded to in the title, which is what makes it real; ain't it? To cut to the chase, Professor Rod MacKinnon did what "couldn't be done." How did he do? No new techniques and / or theories. Professor MacKinnon never forgot to care for the wellbeing of his proteins; asking: "Are you OK?" at every step of the way was all it took to crystallize transmembrane potassium channels. Divorced from feelings, which are indispensable in conscious pursuit of science, we find ourselves less qualified, by virtue of being less human and more of a zombie, to participate in the practice of science. Next is line to be shown its place: objectivity, which many scientists glorify blissfully ignorant of the indispensability of subjectivity in all of it: science (ever-proper alignment of reason with experience). Simply put, every view is from a viewpoint. There ain't a view from nowhere (scientists, following in the footsteps of failed priests and kings, need to get over their god-complex ;) Scientific theories, along with their models and presentations in symbol strings, that we abstract from a given (category of) particulars are all but from the perspective of one or another doctrine. F. William Lawvere and Stephen H. Schanuel Conceptual Mathematics textbook can help scientists see the feminine, i.e. the subjectivity (numbers and their arithmetic are subjective; so is logic and reason), which breathes life anew into science.

With heartfelt gratitude for the enlightenment that Professor Evelyn Fox Keller shared with us all, I find myself eager to learn more about the feminine that is science.