The Philosophy Book

297

B

orn in Austria, Feyerabend

became a student of Karl

Popper at the London

School of Economics, but he went

on to depart significantly from

Popper’s rational model of science.

During his time at the University of

California in the 1960s and 1970s,

Feyerabend became friendly with

the German-born philosopher

Thomas Kuhn, who argued that

scientific progress is not gradual,

but always jumps in “paradigm

shifts” or revolutions that lead to

whole new frameworks for scientific

thinking. Feyerabend goes even

further, suggesting that when this

occurs, all the scientific concepts

and terms are altered, so there is no

permanent framework of meaning.

Anarchy in science

Feyerabend’s most famous book

Against Method: Outline of an

Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge,

was first published in 1975. Here

he sets out his vision of what he

calls “epistemological anarchism”.

Epistemology is the branch of

philosophy that deals with

questions and theories about

knowledge, and Feyerabend’s

“anarchism” is rooted in the idea

that all of the methodologies used

in the sciences are limited in

scope. As a result, there is no such

thing as “scientific method.” If we

look at how science has developed

and progressed in practice, the only

“method” that we can discern is

that “anything goes.” Science,

Feyerabend maintains, has never

progressed according to strict

rules, and if the philosophy of

science demands such rules, it

will limit scientific progress. ■

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH
Philosophy of science

APPROACH
Analytic philosophy

BEFORE
1934 In The Logic of Scientific
Discovery, Karl Popper defines
“falsifiability” as a criterion for
any scientific theory.

1962 Thomas Kuhn introduces
the idea of “paradigm shifts”
in science in The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions.

1960s and early 1970s
Feyerabend develops his ideas
in discussion with his friend
and fellow philosopher of
science, Imre Lakatos.

AFTER
From 1980s Feyerabend’s
ideas contribute to the theories
of the mind proposed by
American philosophers
Patricia and Paul Churchland.

ANYTHING GOES

PAUL FEYERABEND (1924–1994)

Science and myth

overlap in many ways.

Paul Feyerabend

See also: Karl Popper 262–65 ■ Thomas Kuhn 293