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Paul Feyerabend was born on January 13, 1924 and passed away on February 11, 1994. -
Feyerabend seemed to take interest in philosophy when he was attending the University of Vienna. It has been mentioned that he would often storm into philosophy lectures and seminars. Furthermore, "in all interventions he took the radical positivist line that science is the basis of knowledge; that it is empirical; and that nonempirical enterprises are either logic or nonsense (p. 68)" (Preston, 2020). In addition, his interest in philosophy may have peaked when he met Karl Popper in 1948. -
Feyerabend's common theme in his works was that "here is no separate and neutral “observation-language” or “everyday language” against which the theoretical statements of science are tested, but that “the everyday level is part of the theoretical rather then something self-contained and independent” (Philosophical Papers, Volume I, p. 217, emphasis added)" (Preston, 2020). In other words, the relationship between theory and experience. -
One of Feyerabend's notable contribution to philosophy of science was in his earlier works “An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience” (1958). In this work, he argues against the positivism and in favour of a scientific realist account of the relation between theory and experience, largely on grounds familiar from Karl Popper’s falsifications views" (Preston, 2020). In other words, theory is meaningful independently of experience. -
"Against Method," is Feyerabend's most notable work. He mentioned that his reason for writing this work was to "to free people from the tyranny of philosophical obfuscators and abstract concepts such as “truth”, “reality”, or “objectivity”, which narrow people’s vision and ways of being in the world" (Preston, 2020). Feyerabend criticized the methods used in science such that there are no perfect methodologies that governs growth and knowledge. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oovqaJSOVLc&t=73s
This video offers some unique insights about him and his views on science. -
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/
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