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Birth
Born in Vienna. Son of a civil servant and a seamstress.
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/. -
Inducted into the Arbeitsdienst
In March 1942, he was drafted into the Arbeitsdienst (the work service introduced by the Nazis), and sent for basic training in Pirmasens, Germany. Feyerabend opted to stay in Germany to keep out of the way of the fighting, but subsequently asked to be sent to where the fighting was, having become bored with cleaning the barracks! He even considered joining the SS, for aesthetic reasons.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -
Feyerabend’s Turn to Philosophy
Together with a group of science students, who all regarded themselves as far superior to students of other subjects, Feyerabend invaded philosophy lectures and seminars. Although this was not his first contact with philosophy, it seems to have been the period which cemented his interest.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -
Feyerabend meets Popper
In August 1948, at the first meeting of the international summer seminar of the Austrian College Society in Alpbach which he attended, Feyerabend met the philosopher of science Karl Popper, who had already made a name for himself as the Vienna Circle’s “official opposition”.
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Against Method
Appearance of Feyerabend’s 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.
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Science in a Free Society
The book includes one of Feyerabend’s major endorsements of relativism, one of the views for which he was becoming known.
Munevar, Gonzalo. (1991). Science in Feyerabend’s Free Society. 10.1007/978-94-011-3188-9_7. -
Death
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.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy