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Early Life
Feyerabend was born on January 13, 1924 in Vienna, Austria. In 1942, he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service. During 1943, he volunteered for officer school in hopes that the war would be over before his completion. Towards the end of the war, he found himself sustaining 3 bullet wounds including one to the spine causing a lifelong ailment and disability. -
Skepticism
Perhaps Feyerabend’s biggest downfall is being a skeptical extremist to the point of blatant denial and criticism of anyone and everyone else who claimed to believe nearly anything in scientism. His stance however was rather odd by most standards as he promoted the idea that science should be evaluated and weighed by the happiness that it causes for humanity instead of “right or wrong.” -
“Philosopher” of Science
Despite being considered a philosopher of the school of science, it is surprisingly unlikely that Feyerabend would classify himself as a philosopher but rather more of a “free thinker.” In his book Against Method, he criticizes most scientists as “nimble, opportunistic thinkers” and that there is no such thing as a “scientific method.” This resulted in him earning a book titled “Where Science has Gone Wrong” and being labeled “the worst enemy of science” -
Death
The end of Feyerabend’s life was still full of academic work with a great deal of travel between California, New Zealand and England. After retirement, he continued to publish many papers, work on an autobiography, and contribute to the world despite having a brain tumor, resulting in his death on February 11th, 1994 in Switzerland
