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Born
Paul Feyerabend was born in Vienna, Italy and was the son of a civil servant and a seamstress who were quite protective of him due to the aftermath of the First World War. -
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World War II
After passing his final high school exams in 1942, Feyerabend was drafted into the ranks of the Germans. He was a part of the work service called the Arbeitsdienst where he conducted basic training in Pirmasens, Germany. Feyerabend chose to stay away from fighting by staying in Germany. -
Against Method
Feyerabend decided that he was ready to apply his own perspective upon the scientific method where he pushlished an article entitled "Against Method". In this article he went against several prominent accounts of scienttific methodology and planned to host a debate with Lakatos. Due to the unexpected death of Lakatos in 1974 however, the debate was never able to come to fruition. -
Epistemological Anarchism
After writing "Against Method", Feyerabend began lecturing at the University of Sussex. While lecturing, he destroyed every boundary he could academically. This included studying different philosophers, asking seemingly irrational questions, refusing to place anyone on a pedestal, and questioning what the limit of science actually is and how far it should be taken when knowledge could actually weaken the people. He used this paradigm to establish that there were no wrong questions in science. -
Epistemological Anarchism (Cont.)
Using "Against Method" he established the tenets for this philosophy as follows: 1) There is no such thing as 'scientific method' 2) Radical thinking must free itself from method) 3) Imaginative speculation not rigid rules 4) Permanent revolution through the proliferation of wild theories 5) Epistemological anarchism entails political anarchism as the only viable social philosophy and framework for a self-critical science 6) The only rule is that there are no rules. -
Epistemological Anarchism (Video)
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Died
After suffering from a brain tumor in February of 1994, Paul Feyerabend passed away at the Genolier Clinic in Switzerland.