AGAINST METHOD
Outline of an Anarchistic Theory
of Knowledge
Third Edition
by Paul Feyerabend
Modern philosophy of science has paid
great attention to an under-standing of scientific practice, in
contrast to the earlier concentration on "scientific method."
The work of Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Imre Lakatos has provided
varying accounts of what this practice is. Paul Feyerabend goes
beyond this position: he argues that the most successful scientific
inquiries have never proceeded according to a rational method
at all. He examines in detail the arguments which Galileo used
to defend the Copernican revolution in physics, and shows that
his success depended not on rational arguments but on a mixture
of subterfuge, rhetoric and propaganda.
Claiming that anarchism must now replace
rationalism in the theory of knowledge, Feyerabend argues that
intellectual progress can only be achieved by stressing the creativity
and wishes of the scientist rather than the method and authority
of science. In the latter half of the book he examines Popper's
"critical rationalism," and the attempt by Lakatos to
construct a methodology which allows the scientist his freedom
without threatening scientific "law and order." Rejecting
both attempts to shore up rationalism he looks forward to the
"withering away of reason" and maintains that "the
only principle which does not inhibit progress is anything
goes."
".....science is much closer
to myth than a scientific philosophy is prepared to admit. It
is one of the many forms of thought that have been developed by
man, and not necessarily the best. It is conspicuous, noisy, and
impudent, but it is inherently superior only for those who have
already decided in favour of a certain ideology, or who have accepted
it without having ever examined its advantages and its limits.
And as the accepting and rejecting of ideologies should be left
to the individual it follows that the separation of state and
church must be supplemented by the separation of state
and science, the most recent, most aggressive, and most
dogmatic religious institution. Such a separation may be our only
chance to achieve a humanity we are capable of, but have never
fully realized."
¾
Paul Feyerabend, Against Method
I am sure we have all met "anarchists"
who claim to reject the authority of the state, but who offer
up blind unswerving devotion to the ideology of rationalism. Paul
Feyerabend has the right idea: anything goes! Against Method
is an important book for liberating your mind. This revised
edition includes material originally published in Science In
A Free Society and additional chapters on the trial of Galileo
and the problem of the comparative reality of gods and atoms.
1993 edition, 5½
x 8½, 293 pp, indexed, soft cover.
AGAINST METHOD: $18.95
(ORDER NUMBER 94237)
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