Paul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, known for his challenge to universal rules of scientific methodology. His work championed a free-spirited approach to science, rejecting a single, universal set of procedures. Feyerabend became famous for his purportedly anarchistic view of science, becoming an influential figure in the philosophy of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge. His ideas continue to provoke thought on the nature of scientific progress.
This collection showcases Feyerabend's philosophical papers, highlighting his influential ideas published from 1960 to 1980. It offers insights into his critical views on scientific methodology and the nature of knowledge, reflecting his unique approach to philosophy of science. The compilation serves as a valuable resource for understanding his impact on contemporary thought and the debates surrounding scientific practices during that era.
Feyerabend's influential approach to the philosophy of science is showcased through a collection of his seminal essays in two volumes. Volume 1 focuses on scientific theory interpretation and its application to specific philosophical and physical problems. In Volume 2, he explores the origins and implications of abstract rationalism on scientific philosophy and research methods. Advocating for a comprehensive pluralism, Feyerabend draws on his extensive knowledge of scientific history, highlighting the broader philosophical and political ramifications of differing perspectives.
Exploring the interplay between realism, rationalism, and scientific method, this collection delves into foundational philosophical issues. The first volume examines the nature of scientific inquiry and its implications for understanding reality. The second volume addresses challenges related to empiricism, focusing on the limitations and scope of sensory experience in knowledge acquisition. Together, these works provide a comprehensive analysis of critical philosophical debates, emphasizing the importance of method in the pursuit of truth.
Philosopher, physicist, and anarchist Paul Feyerabend was one of the most unconventional scholars of his time. His book Against Method has become a modern classic.
From flea bites to galaxies, from love affairs to shadows, Paul Feyerabend reveled in the sensory and intellectual abundance that surrounds us. He found it equally striking that human senses and human intelligence are able to take in only a fraction of these riches. "This a blessing, not a drawback," he writes. "A superconscious organism would not be superwise, it would be paralyzed." This human reduction of experience to a manageable level is the heart of Conquest of Abundance, the book on which Feyerabend was at work when he died in 1994. Prepared from drafts of the manuscript left at his death, working notes, and lectures and articles Feyerabend wrote while the larger work was in progress, Conquest of Abundance offers up rich exploration and startling insights with the charm, lucidity, and sense of mischief that are his hallmarks. Feyerabend is fascinated by how we attempt to explain and predict the mysteries of the natural world, and he looks at the ways in which we abstract experience, explain anomalies, and reduce wonder to formulas and equations. Through his exploration of the positive and negative consequences of these efforts, Feyerabend reveals the "conquest of abundance" as an integral part of the history and character of Western civilization. "Paul Feyerabend . . . was the Norman Mailer of philosophy. . . . brilliant, brave, adventurous, original and quirky."—Richard Rorty, New Republic "As much a smudged icon as a philosophical position holder, [Feyerabend] was alluring and erotic, a torch singer for philosophical anarchy."—Nancy Maull, New York Times Book Review "[A] kind of final testament of Feyerabend's thought . . . Conquest of Abundance is as much the product of a brilliant, scintillating style as of an immense erudition and culture. . . . This book is as abundant and rich as the world it envisions."—Arkady Plotnitsky, Chicago Tribune
Finished only weeks before his death in 1994, this autobiography traces the
trajectory that led Feyerabend him from an isolated, lower-middle-class
childhood in Vienna to the height of international academic success as one of
this century's most influential intellectuals.
Paul Feyerabend’s globally acclaimed work, which sparked and continues to stimulate fierce debate, examines the deficiencies of many widespread ideas about scientific progress and the nature of knowledge. Feyerabend argues that scientific advances can only be understood in a historical context. He looks at the way the philosophy of science has consistently overemphasized practice over method, and considers the possibility that anarchism could replace rationalism in the theory of knowledge. This updated edition of the classic text includes a new introduction by Ian Hacking, one of the most important contemporary philosophers of science. Hacking reflects on both Feyerabend’s life and personality as well as the broader significance of the book for current discussions.
Conquest of Abundance was prepared from drafts of the manuscript left at the
author's death, working notes, lectures and articles Feyerabend wrote while
the larger work was in progress. It offers up exploration and insights with
the charm, and sense of mischief that are his hallmarks. schovat popis
The text opens with an imaginary dialogue between Lakatos and Feyerabend, which Matteo Motterlini has constructed, based on their published works, to synthesize their positions and arguments. Part one presents the transcripts of the last lectures on method that Lakatos delivered. Part two, Feyerabend's response, consists of a previously published essay on anarchism, which began the attack on Lakatos's position that Feyerabend later continued in "Against Method." The third and longest section consists of the correspondence Lakatos and Feyerabend exchanged on method and many other issues and ideas, as well as the events of their daily lives, between 1968 and Lakatos's death in 1974.
Farewell to Reason offers a vigorous challenge to the scientific rationalism that underlies Western ideals of “progress” and “development,” whose damaging social and ecological consequences are now widely recognized. For all their variety in theme and occasion, the essays in this book share a consistent philosophical purpose. Whether discussing Greek art and thought, vindicating the church’s battle with Galileo, exploring the development of quantum physics or exposing the dogmatism of Karl Popper, Feyerabend defends a relativist and historicist notion of the sciences. The appeal to reason, he insists, is empty, and must be replaced by a notion of science that subordinates it to the needs of citizens and communities. Provocative, polemical and rigorously argued, Farewell to Reason will infuriate Feyerabend’s critics and delight his many admirers.
