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Childhood
Feyerabend lived a very sheltered life as a kid because the world was considered dangerous. He was interested in many different subjects in school to include physics, math, philosophy, acting, and singing. Although he loved science he referred to himself as an entertainer rather than a scientist (Preston). -
Birth
Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Austria to a middle class family. -
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World War II
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Time in the Military
Feyerabend served in the German army as a member of the Pioneer Corps. He was first enlisted and then became an officer as an attempt to avoid front-line fighting (Preston). Towards the end of his military career he was shot which caused him to be temporarily paralyzed. -
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After the War
Feyerabend lived in Weimar then soon moved back home to Vienna. During this time, he studied singing, stage-management, Italian, harmony, piano, enunciation, history and sociology. His first article was published. In his article he took the “radical positivist” approach and wrote about his believe that science is the basis of knowledge (Preston). -
Met Karl Popper
Met Karl Popper at the Alpback seminar of the Austrian College Society (Preston). -
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Popper's Assistant
He received his doctorate in philosophy then was granted a British Council scholarship to study under Popper (“Paul Feyerabend”). While studying under Popper, he concentrated on the quantum theory and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. He presented his ideas on scientific change to Popper’s LSE seminar where incommensurability made its first appearance (Preston). -
Return to Vienna
Feyerabend returned to Vienna after ending his time studying underneath Popper and became the research assistant to Arthur Pap. Here he translated Popper’s work into German and wrote articles for a French encyclopedia (“Paul Feyerabend”). -
Important Early Papers
Two of his most important early papers, “An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience”, and “Complementarity”, appeared in the Aristotelian Society. In them, he took a similar approach as Popper and argues against positivism and in favor of a scientific realism in regards to theory and experience (Preston). -
Became a professor at the University of Berkley
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Papers by Feyerabend
Feyerabend published many papers to include “Das Problem der Existenz theoretischer Entitäten” which argued that entities are hypothetical, “Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism” which introduced the concept of incommensurability, and “How to be a Good Empiricist” which displayed his approach on empiricism (Preston). -
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Theoretical Pluralism
Feyerabend began to distance himself as a philosopher from Popper. He moved to theoretical pluralism instead of empiricism and also defended Niels Bohr’s views against Popper in “on a Recent Critique of Complementarity” (Preston). -
No Longer and Empiricist
The article “Science Without Experience” was published where Feyerabend gave up the attempt to be an empiricist, arguing that principle experience isn’t necessary for empirical scientific theories (Preston). -
Against Method
Feyerabend published his first, most important book, Against Method. It revolved around the idea that there is no such thing as the scientific method.
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Second Edition of Against Method Published
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Resigned from Berkley
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Third Edition of Against Method Published
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Death
Paul Feyerabend died at the aged of 70. -
Major Works
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Works Cited
