Paul Feyerabend

Life

Period: Jan 13, 1924 to Feb 11, 1994

January 13, 1924

Became a Student Leader

1949

Paul Feyerabend became student leader of the “Kraft Circle”, a student philosophy club centered around Viktor Kraft...

Doctorate in Philosophy

1951

"Received doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on “basic statements”. Applied for a British Council scholarship to study under Wittgenstein at Cambridge. But Wittgenstein died before Feyerabend arrived in England, so Feyerabend chose Popper as his supervisor instead." (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/#BrieChroFeyeLifeWork)

Doctoral Dissertation

1951

Feyerabend, Paul. “Zur Theorie der Basissätze.” PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1951.
Feyerabend’s doctoral dissertation (“On the theory of basic statements”), which he himself described as consisting of notes he had taken while he was the student leader of the philosophical circle centered around Viktor Kraft (himself a survivor from the Vienna Circle of logical positivists).

Studied under Popper

1952

"Came to England, to study under Popper at the London School of Economics. Concentrated on the quantum theory and Wittgenstein. Studied the typescript of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, and prepared a summary of the book. Befriended another of Popper’s students, Joseph Agassi." (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/#BrieChroFeyeLifeWork)

Returned to Vienna

1953

Feyerabend returned to Vienna. Popper applied for an extension to his scholarship, but Feyerabend decided to remain in Vienna instead. Translated Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies into German. Declined the offer to become Popper’s research assistant. Agassi took the post. Feyerabend became research assistant to Arthur Pap in Vienna.

First articles published

1954

First articles on quantum mechanics and on Wittgenstein published. Pap introduced Feyerabend to Herbert Feigl.

Became a full time Lecturer in Philosophy

1955

Took up his first full-time academic appointment as lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol, England. His summary of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations appeared as a review of the book in The Philosophical Review.

"A note on the paradox of analysis"

Apr 8, 1956

Wrote an article with the above stated title. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02221761#article-info)

The official publication of "A note on the paradox of analysis"

Dec 1, 1956

Feyerabend's work was actually published in December of 1956 though written earlier and submitted on April 8,1956. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02221761)