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Date of Birth
Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Austria. -
World War 2
He was drafted into the German Arbeitsdienst which was an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarize the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ideology. He then went on to become an Officer, mainly because he thought it would keep him out of the fighting. -
Iron Cross
He received an Iron cross for his role leading his men into a village under enemy fire and then occupying it. -
Effects of War
Paul was shot and sustained damage to his spinal nerves which left him temporarily paralyzed. He spent the remainder of the war recovering from his injuries. -
Alpbach Seminar
Paul met Karl Popper at the Alpbach seminar of the Austrian College society where he became the secretary of the seminars. -
Back in Vienna
He became a student leader of the "Kraft Circle" a philosophy club after returning to Vienna in 1947 to study history and sociology. During his time with the Kraft Circle, he met Ludwig Wittgenstein. -
Doctorate
He received his Doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on "basic statements". -
Declined
Paul declined the offer to become Popper's research assistant and opted to become Arthur Pap's assistant. -
First Articles
He published his first articles on Quantum mechanics and Wittgenstein. -
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Publications
Feyerabend wrote many publications where he argued and defended his views of empiricism, eliminative materialism, theoretical pluralism, the scientific method and epistemological anarchism. His first book "Against Method" whose main focus was that there is no such thing as the scientific method, branded him as an "irrationalist". He had the belief that only a single methodology can produce scientific progress. Philosophers looked at this as his way of isolating himself from them. -
Interview with Feyerabend
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Date of Death
Paul Feyerabend died in Genolier Clinic, Switzerland. -
Works Cited
- Preston, John, "Paul Feyerabend", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/feyerabend/.