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Paul Feyerabend was Born
Paul K. Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Austria. -
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German Army Service WWII
March 1942, he was drafted an sent for basic training in Pirmasens, Germany. He soon volunteered for officers’ school, his intention being to use officers’ school as a way to avoid front-line fighting. He received the Iron Cross early in March 1944, for leading his men into a village under enemy fire, and occupying it. He was a Major when he was shot in 1945 retreating westwards from the Russian army. The bullet lodged in his spine left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. -
Feyerabend Returns to University
Feyerabend returns, still on crutches, and he chooses to study history and sociology at the University of Vienna instead of physics. He soon changes back to physics seeming unsatisfied with history. In August 1948, Feyerabend met the philosopher of science Karl Popper, -
Feyerabend and Popper
In 1952, Feyerabend presented his ideas on scientific change to Popper’s LSE seminar and to a gathering of illustrious Wittgensteinians in Anscombe’s Oxford flat. This meeting seems to have been the first airing of the important concept of incommensurability. These thoughts received an unenthusiastic reception from Hart, von Wright and Popper. -
Feyerabend and Pap
The summer of 1953, Popper applied for extra funds to allow Feyerabend to work as his assistant, Feyerabend had decided to leave the Popperian church and return to Vienna. He then met Arthur Pap and became Pap’s assistant. Pap arranged for him to meet Herbert Feigl in Vienna in 1954, and together they studied Feigl’s papers. Together with Kraft’s contributions and certain ideas Popper had put forward at Alpbach in 1948 and 1949, greatly diminished Feyerabend’s doubts about realism. -
Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism
In this early work, Feyerabend establishes his position as a controversial figure in the philosophy of science. His criticisms of empiricism, the dominant philosophy at the time, and the introduction of incommensurability solidified his position as a rebel within the community. -
Against Method
This established the theory that there is no such thing as "the scientific method". This allows the "anything goes" thinking and the term epistemological anarchism. Feyerabend believe science had become oppressive, rigid, and rule-based. Believed it made science indistinguishable from religion, mythology, and magic. -
Feyerabend's Impact
His rejection of universal methodological rules and his anarchistic view of science made him a famous figure in the philosophy of science. He believed that uniformity reduces resources and the joy of living. Feyerabend's goal is to overthrow the tyrant of science which has ruled as “fact”, unchecked for centuries. He argued that science should have been only a stage in the development of society, a tool to overthrow other ideologies, then itself be overthrown by a new system. -
Feyerabend Dies
Paul K. Feyerabend dies from an inoperable brain tumor. -
Against Method Video
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Works Cited
Marxist241. “Feyerabend.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 May 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85pzjUvBZSI.
“Paul Feyerabend.” Visit the Main Page, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Paul_Feyerabend.
“The Philosophy E-Print Archive.” PhilArchive, https://philarchive.org/.
Preston, John. “Paul Feyerabend.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 24 Aug. 2020, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feyerabend/.