Paul Feyerabend

By SJ Prevette

  • Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994)

    Paul Feyerabend was born on the 13th of January 1924 in Vienna (Feyerabend, 2000). He was a significant individual in the philosophy of science. He challenged orthodoxy during his career, for the majority of which he held a position at the UC Berkeley. He is perhaps best known for his work in Against Method; a work where he states that all the rules of the scientific method may be ignored under certain conditions.

  • Early Work

    In 1951, Feyerabend completed his doctoral dissertation. At this time, he was highly influenced by the logical positivism movement. His first papers, published in 1955, are influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein and his Philosophical Investigations. Soon after he became more interested in the scientific “realism” that could be found in the works of Boltzmann, Hollitscher and Popper to name a few (Preston, 2019).

  • Against Method

    In 1975, Feyerabend published his first book, Against Method. It was in this work that he introduced the idea that there was no such thing as “the scientific method.” He also showed a distinct suspicion of “rationality’, ‘objectivity’, and ‘truth” (Munchin, 2011). In later publications, he referred to himself as an “epistemological anarchist.”

  • Anything Goes

    Feyerabend proclaimed himself to be an “epistemological anarchist”- someone who does not believe in a single “scientific method.” They believe that a proliferation of methods and theories will be of more use in scientific studies.
    Feyerabend’s slogan “anything goes” was not meant to be a methodological principle; more a statement of how he viewed scientist’s historical view of the scientific method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coJF--qWeVc

  • The End (1994)

    On February 11, 1994, Paul Feyerabend died of an inoperable brain tumor. He was Genolier, Switzerland at the time of his death.

    His career lasted for 45 years, during which time he wrote on many philosophical issues. However, his interests varied having studied singing, drama, piano, physics, mathematics, astronomy and sociology to name a few. He did not become a student of philosophy until he had earned his doctorate in philosophy.