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Paul Feyerabend Biography

Paul Feyerabend

Paul Karl Feyerabend (German: [ˈfaɪɐˌaːbn̩t]; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (1958–1989). At various different points in his life, he lived in England, the United States, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, and finally Switzerland. His major works include Against Method (published in 1975), Science in a Free Society (published in 1978) and Farewell to Reason (a collection of papers published in 1987). Feyerabend became famous for his purportedly anarchistic view of science and his rejection of the existence of universal methodological rules. He was an influential figure in the sociology of scientific knowledge. Asteroid (22356) Feyerabend is named in his honour.

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Paul Feyerabend Quotes

Traditions are neither good nor bad, they simply are. . . Rationality is not an arbiter of traditions, it is itself a tradition or an aspect of a tradition.

Arbiter, Aspect, Rationality, Tradition, Traditions

Rational discourse is only one way of presenting and examining an issue and by no means the best. Our new intellectuals are not aware of its limitations and of the nature of the things outside.

Mean, Issues, Way, Nature, Limitations

Given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite. For example, there are circumstances when it is advisable to introduce, elaborate and defend ad hoc hypotheses, or hypotheses which contradict well-established and generally accepted experimental results, or hypotheses whose content is smaller than the content of the existing and empirically adequate alternative, or self-inconsistent hypotheses, and so on.

Adopt, Hypotheses, Introduce, Opposites, Science, Self

Humane science must be adapted to the requirements of a balanced and rewarding life.

Balanced, Humane, Requirements

Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise.

Anarchic, Enterprise, Essentially, Science

Language became a colorless and as indistinct as the business suit which is now worm by everyone, by the scholar, by the businessman, by the professional killer. Being accustomed to a dry and dreary norm and sees in it an obvious sign of arrogance and aggression; viewing authority with almost religious awe he gets into a frenzy when he sees someone pluck the beard of his favorite prophet.

Accustomed, Arrogance, Beard, Killers, Professional, Religious

The attitude of the Church was not as dogmatic as is often assumed. Interpretations of Bible passages had been revised in the light of scientific research before. Everyone regarded the earth as spherical and as freely floating in space though the Bible tells a different story.

Attitude, Dogmatic, Earth, Light, Passages, Space

There is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or other. It becomes evident that such violations are not accidental events, they are not results of insufficient knowledge or of inattention which might have been avoided. On the contrary, we see that they are necessary for progress.

Accidental, Inattention, Progress, Science, See, Violations

The idea of a method that contains firm, unchanging, and absolutely binding principles for conducting the business of science meets considerable difficulty when confronted with the results of historical research. We find, then, that there is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or another.

Difficulty, Grounded, Historical, Ideas, Results, Science

Teachers' using grades and the fear of failure mould the brains of the young until they have lost every ounce of imagination they might once have possessed.

Brain, Imagination, Ounce, Possessed, Teacher

One knows quite well that harmony can be a harmony of appearances.

Appearance, Appearances, Harmony, Knows, Wells

There is no coherent knowledge , i. e. no uniform comprehensive account of the world and the events in it. There is no comprehensive truth that goes beyond an enumeration of details, but there are many pieces of information , obtained in different ways from different sources and collected for the benefit of the curious. The best way of presenting such knowledge is the list - and the oldest scientific works were indeed lists of facts, parts, coincidences, problems in several specialized domains.

Comprehensive, Information, Uniform, Uniforms, Way, Ways

The world we inhabit is abundant beyond our wildest imagination. There are trees, dreams, sunrises; there are thunderstorms, shadows, rivers; there are wars, flea bites, love affairs; there are the lives of people, Gods, entire galaxies. The simplest human action varies from one person and occasion to the next-how else would we recognize our friends only from their gait, posture, voice, and divine their changing moods? Only a tiny fraction of this abundance affects our minds. This is a blessing, not a drawback. A superconscious organism would not be superwise, it would be paralyzed.

Blessing, Dream, Flea, Inhabit, Simplest, War

All religion may be centered around a generally good idea, however, this has not stopped its adherents from acting like bastards.

Acting, Ideas, May, Religion, Stopped

The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education.

Against, Consists, Education, Learning, Systematic, Teaching

Not only are facts and theories in constant disharmony, they are never as neatly separated as everyone makes them out to be.

Disharmony, Everyone, Facts, Theories, Theory

The only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths.

Absolute, Absolute Truth, Absolutes, Truth, Truth Is, Truths

My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is, rather, to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.

Convince, Intention, Limits, Methodology, Ones

An anarchist is like an undercover agent who plays the game of Reason in order to undercut the authority of Reason (Truth, Honesty, Justice and so on).

Authority, Games, Honesty, Order, Truth

Today science prevails not because of its comparative merits, but because the show has been rigged in its favour. . . It reigns supreme because some past successes have led to institutional measures (education; role of experts; role of power groups such as the AMA) that prevent a comeback of the rivals.

Experts, Favour, Groups, Past, Today

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