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Feyerabend's Birth
Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna in 1924 and attended primary and secondary school there. He developed a keen interest in reading frequently, theatre and began singing classes as a young boy. -
Popper and Work in Vienna
After the death of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Feyerabend chose Popper as his supervisor, and in 1952, he enrolled in the London School of Economics. He explains in his autobiography that Popper was a significant influence on him during this time. Feyerabend returned to Vienna and worked on several projects: a translation of Popper's Open Society and its Enemies, locating manuscripts that Popper had left in Vienna, a study on the growth of the humanities in Austria and several encyclopedia articles. -
Feyerabend's Education
In 1951, after switching his course of study from physics, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna, writing his thesis on "observational statements." Feyerabend was to study under Ludwig Wittgenstein in London before the latter's death. -
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Work in Academia
Feyerabend's first academic position was at the University of Bristol in 1955, where he lectured on science philosophy. During this time, he developed a critical view of science, to express his rejection of the dogmatic application of rules. In 1958, Feyerabend went to Berkeley, California, and became a citizen of the United States. He lectured in New Zealand in 1972 and 1974 after holding professorships in London, Berlin, and Yale. He would retire in 1991. -
Philosophy of Science
In his works "Against Method" and "Science in a Free Society," Feyerabend argued that scientists do not always follow the same methodological standards. A "dose" of theoretical anarchism, he believes, would benefit science the most. Feyerabend's viewpoint was considered revolutionary in the philosophy of science since it meant that philosophy could not provide a general definition of science or devise a mechanism for distinguishing scientific outputs from non-scientific phenomena such as myths. -
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Notable Works
Some of Feyerabend's works were posthumously published.
- Feyerabend, Paul Karl. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge: Paul Feyerabend. Verso, 1975.
- Feyerabend, Paul. Science in a Free Society. Routledge, 1978.
- Feyerabend, Paul. Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Feyerabend, Paul. Naturphilosophie. Suhrkamp, 2009.
- Feyerabend, Paul, and Eric Oberheim. Tyranny of Science. Polity Press, 2015. -
Philosophy of Science (Cont.)
Any guideline that tried to measure the quality of scientific theories by comparing them to known facts was frowned upon by Feyerabend. He believed that past ideas could have an impact on natural interpretations of observed phenomena. He argued that when comparing scientific hypotheses to empirical data, scientists must make implicit assumptions; to make the new theory compatible with observations, a scientist must alter these assumptions. -
Feyerabend's Death
During the 1980s, Feyerabend alternated between postings at ETH Zurich and Berkeley, but in October 1989, he departed Berkeley for good, first to Italy, then to Zurich. Feyerabend continued to publish articles and work on his memoirs after retiring in 1991. He died in 1994 at the Genolier Clinic, overlooking Lake Geneva, Switzerland, after a brief battle with a brain tumor. -
