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Birth
Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Austria on January 13, 1924. -
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World War 2
In 1942 Paul Feyerabend was drafted into the Arbeitsdienst, a Nazi work service, and was then sent of to army basic training. In order to avoid the front lines, Feyerabend applied for officer's school. It was during his time as an officer that he began giving lectures. In 1944 he gave a series of lectures at officer's school on historical periods. Soon thereafter, he went to the front lines and took the place of many injured officers before being shot himself leading to temporary paralysis. -
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University and Popper
In 1947 Paul Feyerabend returned to Vienna where he attended the University of Vienna. He began studying history but then turned to theoretical physics. It was during this time that he began crashing philosophy lectures and seminars which secured his interest in philosophy. In 1948 he met Karl Popper, who was both a positive and negative influence on Feyerabend, at a seminar of the Austrian College Society. After many years Feyerabend became the science secretary of the society. -
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The Kraft Circle
Paul Feyerabend became the student leader of the "Kraft Circle" which was a philosophy club named after Viktor Kraft, a former member of the Vienna Circle and Feyerabend's dissertation supervisor. In 1951, after failing to get anywhere with his physics thesis, Feyerabend fully switched over to philosophy and took much of his philosophy thesis from discussions held during Kraft Circle meetings. -
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Coming to America
In 1957 Paul Feyerabend accepted an invitation to visit the Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science. It was there that he met important figures such as Ernest Nagel, Hilary Putnam and many others. During this time many of Feyerabend's early papers were published including “An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience” in 1958. Also in 1958, Feyerabend accepted a one year lectureship at UC Berkeley after which, in 1960, he began lecturing full time until resigning in 1990. -
Against Method (Book)
Against Method was first published as an article in 1970 and as a book in 1975. In this book Paul Feyerabend criticizes scientists who stick to steadfast rules on doing science. Feyerabend says that good scientists throw the rules out the window and use all ideas/opportunities at hand. This opportunistic attitude should be used even if it goes against traditional empiricist methodology. Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. London: NLB, 1975. Print. -
Death
Paul Feyerabend passed away in Genolier, Switzerland on February 11, 1994. Please enjoy this short video of Philosopher Ian Hacking discussing Paul Feyerabend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNm5Ec-GuE 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/.
