-
Birth of Paul Feyerabend
Born in Vienna. Son of a civil servant and a seamstress. -
Drafted into the Pioneer Corps of the German army.
After basic training, volunteered for Officers' School. -
Decorated, Iron Cross. Advanced to Lieutenant. Lectured to Officers' School.
-
Shot in the hand and in the belly during the retreat from the Russian Army. The bullet damaged his spinal nerves.
-
Period: to
Major Works
Against Method, London: Verso, 1975.
Science in a Free Society, London: New Left Books, 1978.
Der wissenschaftstheoretische Realismus und die Autorität der Wissenschaften, Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1978.
Erkenntnis für freie Menschen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1980.
Realism, Rationalism, and Scientific Method (Philosophical Papers, Volume 1), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. -
Period: to
Epistemological anarchism part one
The epistemological anarchist is opposed to all systems of rules and constraints in science.
Great scientists are opportunistic and creative, willing to make use of any available technique for discovery and persuasion. Feyerabend’s deepest belief was that science is an aspect of human creativity. Scientific ideas and scientific change are to be assessed in those terms. Any attempt to establish rules of method in science will result only in a straitjacketing of this creativity. -
Period: to
Epistemological anarchism
References
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Science and Its Conceptual Foundations. https://blogak.eus/amets/feyerabend-and-the-anarchist-theory-of-knowledge
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/?PHPSESSID=6c78026836f554641b6a8ad5d934e75f#FeyeLateWorkTowaRelaButThenBeyoIt -
Period: to
Epistemological anarchism videos
-
Period: to
Epistemological anarchism part two
The history of science is so complex that if we insist on a general methodology which will not inhibit progress the only “rule” it will contain will be the useless suggestion: “anything goes”. According to Feyerabend, no method in the history of science has been a success, since none of them has lead scientific activity. Feyerabend’s defense of individual creativity and imagination leaded him to criticize Kuhn's idea of paradigm. -
Period: to
Epistemological anarchism part three
According to Feyerabend paradigms do not have such a big control in normal science, since individual's creativity always triumphs over scientific standards. Feyerabend, however did not disagree with all of Kuhn’s theories. Like Kuhn, he thought that rival scientific theories are often linguistically incommensurable. He argued that observations in science are contaminated with theoretical assumptions and hence cannot be considered a neutral test of theory. -
Paul Karl Feyerabend death
Paul Karl Feyerabend died at the Genolier Clinic, overlooking Lake Geneva.