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Paul Karl Feyerabend
born in Vienna, to the son of a civil servant and a seamstress, Feyerabend took up reading as well as singing during his childhood. -
Life before University 1942-1946
Drafted into Arbeitsdienst (the work service introduced by the Nazis) and the Pioneer Corps of the German army. After basic training, volunteered for Officers’ School, Feyerabend serves with the German Army in WWII, achieving the rank of Lieutenant. He is awarded the Iron Cross and wounded by the Russians in his hand and stomach. -
University
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 considered “a raving positivist (or very confident of something)” at the time. -
Raving Positivist
He earned a doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on “basic statements”. He applied for a British Council scholarship to study under Wittgenstein at Cambridge. But Wittgenstein died before Feyerabend arrived in England, so Feyerabend chose Popper as his supervisor instead. -
Feyerabend and Kuhn
Feyerabend At Berkley university in California, he encountered Thomas Kuhn, and read Kuhn’s forthcoming book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in draft form. He then wrote to Kuhn about the book. But he was not quite ready to take on Kuhn’s descriptive-historical approach to the philosophy of science. Although more and more historical examples peppered his published work, he was still using them to support fairly orthodox falsificationist conclusions. -
Against Method
In 1975, Feyerabend published his first book, Against Method, setting out “epistemological anarchism”, whose main thesis was that there is no such thing as the scientific method. Great scientists are methodological opportunists who use any moves that come to hand, even if they thereby violate canons of empiricist methodology.
Against Method -
Death
Paul Feyerabend, His major works include Against Method (1975), Science in a Free Society (1978) and Farewell to Reason (1987). Feyerabend became famous for his purportedly anarchistic view of science and his rejection of the existence of universal methodological rules , passed away February 11th 1994 of an Inoperable brain tumor . he leaves us with an interview from 1993 Feyerabend interview -
citation
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/#toc
https://hussainather.com/2018/10/14/an-insight-into-philosopher-paul-feyerabend-an-imaginative-maverick/
https://youtu.be/AiNm5Ec-GuE
https://youtu.be/85pzjUvBZSI
https://youtu.be/kDwoGtPbO5w
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41584420/paul-feyerabend
