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Birth of Paul Feyerabend
Born in Vienna, Austria -
Unlikely Soldier
Drafted into the German Army in 1942, Feyerabend found that the war was nothing more than an inconvenience to him. He neither identified with Germany or anyone else. Originally he wanted to stay in Germany to avoid the fighting but later became bored with cleaning so asked to be transferred directly into the fight. (John Preston, 2020) -
Lieutenant
At the end of November in 1944 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and was asked to speak as a 'historicist' in an officers meeting (John Preston, 2020) -
Bullet in the Spine
During the war, Feyerabend took a round directly into his spine. He was paralyzed and let impotent. Even still, he married four times and, in his own words, had 'plenty of affairs'. -
Singing
In 1946, he was able to recover from the paralysis and was offered a fellowship to return to his studies of singing and theatre. (John Preston, 2020) -
University life and Karl Popper
While back to his studies he found that theoretical physics tickled his fancy more than any other subject. He started invading more lectures and seminars. This is where he first encountered Karl Popper, at the Austrian College Society. At this point, Popper had already been well known for his theories. (John Preston, 2020) -
Scientific Change
While at the London School of Economics, Feyerabend presented his ideas about scientific change to Popper's LSE and several others. This seems to be the first presentation of inconsumerability, although this has not been verified. (John Preston, 2020) -
Back to Vienna
Feyerabend moves back to Vienna after leaving the Popperian church. Soon after leaving, he was offered an assistant position back at the church, but he declined the offer. (John Preston, 2020) -
Arthur Pap
After spending some time being a translator for some of Popper's books, Feyerabend met Arthur Pap. He was visiting Vienna to lecture on analytic philosophy. Feyerabend quickly became Pap's assistant. (John Preston, 2020) -
Herbert Feigl
While working for Pap, he was instructed to meet Herbert Feigl in Vienna and study his papers. this is where Feyerabend started doubting realism.(John Preston, 2020) -
Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics
This would be the first of many publications that Feyerabend produced. This came from studying and working with Popper on the 'Copenhagen Interpretation'. (John Preston, 2020) -
Alpbach Lecture
His first lecture, Feyerabend remembers, was a disaster. He was in Bristol and was giving a lecture on Quantum Mechanics. However, this time he gave a wonderful seminar along with Alfred Landé. This is where he starts stepping beyond Popper. (John Preston, 2020) -
Science with Realism
Feyerabend starts a series of papers arguing that science can't progress without realism. These papers were heavily influenced by Karl Popper's research and Feyerabend's findings were also conducive to Popper's.(John Preston, 2020) -
Realistic Interpretation of Experience
In this publication, arguably his most beneficial, he argued against positivism and in favor of a scientific realist account on the relationship of theory and experience. It lied very familiar to Popper's falsification view. (John Preston, 2020) -
Science Without Experience
Feyerabend published a four-page article arguing that someone doesn't need the experience to construct, comprehend, or test, a scientific theory. This was also the paper that onlookers saw Feyerabend was not an empiricist. (John Preston, 2020) -
Against Method
In his own words, "AM is not a book, it is a collage. It contains descriptions, analyses, arguments that I had published, in almost the same words, ten, fifteen, even twenty years earlier… I arranged them in a suitable order, added transitions, replaced moderate passages with more outrageous ones, and called the result “anarchism”. I loved to shock people…" (pp. 139, 142). (John Preston, 2020) -
Science in a Free Society
At this point, Feyerabend has been catching massive backlash from readers of "AM". They have accused him of being 'aggressive and nasty'. So he did the exact same right back to them. His personal life had fallen apart, he was alone, and now wishing he never wrote 'AM'. So he wrote Science in a Free Society. It compounded what he had written in AM, but also combated his backlash at the same time. Feyerabend, Paul (1975). "How to defend society against science" -
Period: to
Best of Times
During the 1980's he spent as a professor at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich. This was by far his favorite time in his life. He wrote a few papers that were compiled together and later published called "Farewell to Reason". But he spent most of his tenure giving lectures and continuing his combat against scientists. (John Preston, 2020) -
Death of Paul Feyerabend
Died in Genolier, Vaud, Switzerland
