-
Birthday
Paul Karl Feyerabend was born in Vienna to a civil servant and seamstress. -
Arbeitsdienst
Feyerabend was drafted into the Nazi work service as a young man, for which he attended basic training in Germany. Upon completion of training, he opted to remain in Germany to avoid fighting. He would, however, later request to be sent to wherever there was a fight because he grew bored of cleaning the barracks. -
Pioneer Corps
Feyerabend was drafted into the Wehrmacht Pioneer Corps, where he volunteered for officer training in order to avoid fighting on the front lines. While training in Vukovar, Yugoslavia, Feyerabend was quite unmoved by the news of his mother's suicide (1943), which shocked his fellow officers. -
Military Career
In his autobiography, Feyerabend remembers himself as a foolhardy soldier, treating the conduct of war much like a theatrical performance. He also recalls that he did not fully appreciate the moral weight of World War II, calling it more of a distraction or nuisance than anything else. Despite all this, he was awarded the Iron Cross in 1944, and sustained two bullet wounds during another careless act of heroism in 1945 on the Russian front. One of these wounds left him temporarily paralyzed. -
Post-War Academic Career
In 1946, Feyerabend received a fellowship to study vocal performance and stage management In Weimar. He retained a passion for singing throughout his life. Feyerabend returned to Vienna in 1947 to study history and sociology. He applied to the position of research assistant to Ludwig Wittgenstein, but Wittgenstein died before Feyerabend had the chance to work with him. Feyerabend chose to take the post with Karl Popper instead. He would eventually earn his doctorate in philosophy in 1951. -
Professor Feyerabend
Feyerabend's first academic appointment was that of lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol, England in 1955. He transferred as visiting lecturer to the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. He published multiple papers during this time, supporting Popper's falsificationist view of Philosophy of Science. He accepted a permanent post at the university in 1959. -
Against Method
Feyerabend was close friends with another philosopher of science, Imre Lakatos (1922 - 1974). The two exchanged a series of letters which they planned to publish as a dialogue volume, "For and Against Method." Lakatos died before the work could be completed, so Feyerabend published "Against Method" in 1975. The book details "epistemological anarchism," claiming that great scientists are opportunists who use any methods available to conduct their work. -
Science in a Free Society
After an endorsement of relativism between 1976 and '77, Feyerabend published "Science in a Free Society,' in which he responded to reviews of "Against Method," clarified epistemological anarchism, and further explored its implications. He remained firmly planted in the position laid out in "Against Method." -
Scienza Come Arte
Feyerabend published "Science as Art" in 1984, in which he defended a purely relativistic account of the history of science. He claimed that, throughout history, science has changed but not progressed. -
Late Life and Death
Throughout the early 1990s, Feyerabend's work showed an increasing dissatisfaction with relativism, but he remained staunchly opposed to objectivism. He developed an inoperable brain tumor in 1993, and was hospitalized. He passed away in the Genolier clinic in Switzerland in 1994. -
Works Cited
Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. London, NLB, 1975. Feyerabend, Paul. Science in a Free Society. London, NLB, 1978. Feyerabend, Paul. Science as Art. 1984. Preston, John, "Paul Feyerabend", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/feyerabend/. Accessed 11 October 2021.