Paul Feyerabend's Timeline

By joshvlntn

  • Critique of Logical Positivism and Falsificationism

    Feyerabend developed thoughts about positivism beginning in 1957, arguing that science needs realism in order to progress, and that positivism would stultify such progress. He considered falsificationism a real option. Positivism takes experiences as unanalysable building-blocks, realism treats experiences as analysable, explaining them as the result of processes not immediately accessible to observation. Works Cited: 24 Aug. 2020, plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend.

  • Incommensurability Thesis (1962)

    In the influential "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Kuhn made the claim that history of science reveals proponents of competing paradigms failing to give merit to a 1 single common ground upon which scientific truths are established. They lack a common measure. Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/ZjCiymye_fw?feature=shared Works Cited: The Incommensurability of Scientific Theories (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 7 May 2024, plato.stanford.edu/entries/incommensurability.

  • Against Method

    In 1970, Feyerabend published a long article entitled "Against Method" where he drew the "epistemological anarchist" conclusion that there are no useful and exceptionless methodological rules governing the progress of science or the growth of knowledge. Furthermore, he claimed that setting rules on the scientific method would inhibit scientific progress by enforcing restrictive conditions on new theories. Link: plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/#AgaiMeth1970

  • Defense of Methodological Pluralism

    Feyerabend made the assertion that there is no single, reliable scientific method. Instead, he suggested that scientific progress often occurs through processes that are illogical and even irrational when viewed through the lens of standard scientific methods. He aimed to liberate humanity from the constraints of a rigid scientific method, advocating for theoretical diversity. Works Cited: philosophy.institute/philosophy-of-science-and-cosmology/paul-feyerabend-theoretical-pluralism-science.