Keywords: Thought, Human Rights, Epistemology of Social and Legal Sciences.
The aim of the
article is to emphasize some methods and approaches proposed by Catharine A. MacKinnon
as possible contributions to legal philosophy and social sciences in general. They concern the
question of "what counts as human?" in human rights; the notion of universality; the epistemological
status of conceptual categories; the relationship between theory and reality. The
awareness of narrative and normative role of conceptual categories can moderate the weight
of analytical approaches to legal philosophy. Considering that feminist thought holds the
priority of interpretative categories on facts - as long as interpretation is necessary in order
to understand the concept of sexual harassment or gender violence - MacKinnon's criticisms
against postmodernism can offer a good equilibrium between theory and reality.