 A more controversial analytic feminist response that fits into  (3)  is Martha Nussbaum’s defense of concepts and standards of objectivity and reason. She argues forcefully that it is in feminists’ interests, both theoretically and practically, to retain fairly traditional ideals of objectivity and rationality while acknowledging their abusive use. This position, in itself, would not have generated great controversy, even if not universally accepted. However, because Nussbaum sees certain critics of the male-biased aspects of objectivity and reason as part of a “feminist assault on reason” (1994: 59), her essay and her interpretation of other feminists’ views generated wide and heated discussion among feminist philosophers at the  time.[12]