Paul Feyerabend 1924 – 1994
Paul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his anti-methodological critique of the philosophy of science. After early work in the orbit of the logical empiricists and Popper, he turned to a more radical position, expressed in Against Method, Science in a Free Society, and Farewell to Reason, in which no single methodological rule has ever survived the actual history of science and theoretical progress depends on a willingness to violate received standards. His long career at Berkeley and at the ETH Zurich made him one of the most provocative critics of scientific absolutism and one of the most engaging stylists of twentieth-century philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Austrian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Paul Feyerabend:
“The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes.”
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Attributed to Paul Feyerabend:
“Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise.”
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Attributed to Paul Feyerabend:
“There is no idea, however ancient and absurd, that is not capable of improving our knowledge.”
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Attributed to Paul Feyerabend:
“A clever individual will always know how to circumvent any rule.”
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Attributed to Paul Feyerabend:
“Reason is one tradition among others; it has no claim to universal authority.”