Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994)

Paul Feyerabend

1924

Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna

Paul Feyerabend (1940)

1940

In this year he was inducted to Arbeitsdienst which is a work service introduced by the Nazis.

Paul Feyerabend (1942)

1942

Drafted to the Pioneer Corps of the German Army and after basic training he became an Officer.

Paul Feyerabend (1945)

1945

Shot in the hand and in the belly during the retreat from the Russian Army. The bullet damaged his spinal nerves.

Paul Feyerabend (1947)

1947

Returned to Vienna to study history and sociology at the University. Soon transferred to physics. First article, on the concept of illustration in modern physics, published. Feyerabend “a raving positivist” at the time.

Paul Feyerabend (1949)

1949

Became student leader of the “Kraft Circle”, a student philosophy club centred around Viktor Kraft, Feyerabend’s dissertation supervisor and a former member of the Vienna Circle. Ludwig Wittgenstein visited the Kraft Circle to give a talk. Feyerabend also met Bertolt Brecht.

Paul Feyerabend (1951)

1951

Received doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on basic statements.

Paul Feyerabend (1954)

1954

First articles on quantum mechanics and on Wittgenstein published. Pap introduced Feyerabend to Herbert Feigl.

Paul Feyerabend (1955)

1955

Took up his first full-time academic appointment as lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol, England. His summary of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations appeared as a review of the book in The Philosophical Review.

Paul Feyerabend (1960)

1960

As a result of earlier discussions with Herbert Feigl, Feyerabend published “Das Problem der Existenz theoretischer Entitäten”, in which he argued that there is no special “problem” of theoretical entities, and that all entities are hypothetical. Gave two lectures to Oberlin College, Ohio, in which he embroidered on Popper’s views about the pre-Socratic thinkers.

Paul Feyerabend

1963

“How to be a Good Empiricist”, a position paper summing up his point of view, was published, along with his two main articles on the Mind/Body Problem in which he introduced the position now known as “eliminative materialism”.

Paul Feyerabend (1970)

1970

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.

Paul Feyerabend (1981)

1981

English publication of the first two volumes of Feyerabend’s Philosophical Papers, with new material in introductory chapters.

Paul Feyerabend (1984)

1984

Publishes “Science as an Art”, in which he defends an explicitly relativistic account of the history of science according to which there is change, but no “progress”. Also continues his campaign to rehabilitate Ernst Mach.

Paul Feyerabend (1991)

1991

Retired from Zurich. Three Dialogues on Knowledge and Beyond Reason, a festschrift edited by a former pupil, Gonzalo Munévar, published. Also lots of small publications, many of them in Common Knowledge. Signs of an increasing unhappiness with relativism in Feyerabend’s publications around this time. But still vigorously opposed to “objectivism”.

Paul Feyerabend (1993)

1993

Third edition of Against Method published. Feyerabend developed an inoperable brain tumour, and was hospitalized.

Paul Feyerabend (1994)

1994

Feyerabend died in the Genolier clinic (Genolier, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland), February 11th. Several major memorial symposia and colloquia on his work took place over the next two years.

Paul Feyerabend (1995)

1995

Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend published.

Paul Feyerabend (1999)

1999

Conquest of Abundance published