Paul Feyerabend: Against Method - Born: January 13, 1924 and Died: February 11, 1994

By russellmr

  • Drafted

    Drafted
    In 1942, he was drafted into the German Arbeitsdienst (which was a type of Labor Army). After becoming bored of doing various labor jobs from cleaning to digging holes Feyerabend requested to go to the front lines of the war. After two years of moving through the enlisted ranks he volunteered to go to officers' school; mainly because he thought it was safer. Towards the end of his service time he was wounded causing him to use a cane for the rest of his life.

  • Academia

    Academia
    Feyerabend academic timeline covered over 3 decades. He first stating giving lectures at the University of Bristol, then in 1958 he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a professor at UC Berkeley until 1989, but durning this time he also taught in London, Berlin,Yale, and New Zealand. After UC Berkeley taught in Italy and lastly Zurich before retiring in 1991.

  • Against Method

    Against Method
    In 1970, Feyerabend published an article called "Against Method", where he attacked the methodologies of scientific studies. Feyerabend was working along side with Lakatos to create a "For and Against Method" explaining both sides of sceince, but Lakatos unexpectedly died. Then in 1975, Feyerabend published the full book version of "Against Method", but Feyerabend called it a "collage", containing all of his work dating decades back.