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Early Life
Paul Feyerabend was born on January 13th, 1924 in Vienna, Austria. He spent his childhood and early schooling years in Vienna where he acquired an interest in theatre and singing. In 1942 at the age of 18 he was drafted into the German Arbeitstdienst, which was a labor group introduced by the Nazi party. Cover Photo Credit :By Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43947805 -
Military Service
In 1943 Feyerabend commissioned as an Officer in the German Army. In 1945 he was shot three times, one of those bullets hitting his spine, leaving him physically handicapped. He required the use of a walking cane the rest of his life. Following the war he returned to Vienna to study history and sociology, but eventually switched into physics. -
The Start of His Philosophy
In 1948 he visited the Alpbach seminar of the Austrian College Society, where he met Karl Popper. Popper would become one of, if not, the biggest influences on the philosophical career of Feyerabend. He first defended Popper's ideas and considered himself to be a "Popperian", but eventually would become very critical of Popper and the idea of falsification. -
Early Work as a Professor
Feyerabend started his work as a professor at the University of Bristol in 1955, giving lectures on the philosophy of science. At the time he was still mostly aligned with the Popperian philosophy he had originally supported; however he met two philosophers by the names of David Bohm and Philipp Frank who planted seeds of a different mind-set that would emerge in his later work (Preston, 4.1). -
Berkeley - The Transition Away From Empiricism
He was first invited to lecture at University of California at Berkeley in 1958, and transferred to full-time in 1960. During his tenure he grew scorned with the institutionalization of the academia. He did not like having policies or boundaries set in place for the knowledge he was to be teaching. By the late 60's he had departed from his empiricist views for something much different.
https://youtu.be/coJF--qWeVc - Not the best audio, but good information. -
Against Method
In the beginning the book "Against Method" was to be a script of argument against Feyerabend and Imre Lakatos, however Lakatos passed away before his side of the argument was published. Feyerabend published his most controversial, and most popular book "Against Method" in 1975, where he asserted his stance entirely against any form of structure or method in science. A stance that caused a serious recoil amongst his peers in the philosophy community. -
Aftermath 1975-1994
His assertion was so provocative to the community he was dubbed, "The worst enemy of science" at one point. He was steadfast in his belief and defense of his belief against anybody opposed to him. Despite being such an abrasive argument, his theory still retains value today in the way that science is viewed and practiced. Paul Feyerabend passed away on February 11th, 1994, but his impact is still resonating in the philosophy of science. -
References
A list of references used :
Paul Feyerabend. New World Encyclopedia. (n.d.). https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org. Preston, John, "Paul Feyerabend", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/feyerabend/. Feyerabend, P., Preston, J., Munévar, G., & Lamb, D. (2000). The worst enemy of science? essays in memory of Paul Feyerabend . Oxford University Press