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Born
Born in Vienna. Son of a civil servant and a seamstress. -
Period: to
Paul Feyerabend
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The War
As far as his army record goes, Feyerabend claims in his autobiography that his mind is a blank. But in fact, this is one of the periods he tells us most about. Having passed his final high school exams in March 1942, he was drafted into the Arbeitsdienst (the work service introduced by the Nazis), and sent for basic training in Pirmasens, Germany. Feyerabend opted to stay in Germany to keep out of the way of the fighting, but subsequently asked to be sent to the fight because he was bored. -
Shot
Shot in the hand and in the belly during the retreat from the Russian Army. The bullet damaged his spinal nerves. -
Post war
having recovered from paralysis, he received a state fellowship to return to study singing and stage-management for a year at the Musikhochschule in Weimar. He moved from Apolda to Weimar after about three months. At the Weimar Institut zur Methodologischen Erneuerung des Deutschen Theaters he studied theatre, and at the Weimar academy he took classes in Italian, harmony, piano, singing and enunciation. Singing remained one of his life’s major interests. -
Published
In the early 1950’s, Feyerabend published several German papers on Wittgenstein, written as a result of having read the proofs of the Philosophical Investigations, lent to him by Elizabeth Anscombe. Feyerabend first met Anscombe when lecturing on Descartes to the Austrian College Society. Anscombe had come to Vienna to perfect her German in order to translate Wittgenstein’s works. -
Consolations for the Specialist
Publication of “Consolations for the Specialist”, in which Feyerabend attacked Popper from a Kuhnian point of view, and the essay version of “Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge”, in which “epistemological anarchism” was revealed for the first time. Feyerabend claimed to be applying the liberalism of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to scientific methodology. Published little during the next few years. -
Science in a Free Society
Science in a Free Society appears, including replies to reviewers of Against Method. Some clarification of epistemological anarchism, and very little retreat from the position set out in AM. Explored further the political implications of epistemological anarchism. The book also included one of Feyerabend’s major endorsements of relativism, one of the views for which he was becoming known. First volume of the German edition of Feyerabend’s philosophical papers appears. -
Death
Feyerabend died in the Genolier clinic (Genolier, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland)