Week 5 timeline 2

Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994), Philosopher of Science

  • First Article in Modern Physics

    Came back to Vienna University from Weimar, where he joined the "Cultural Association for the Democratic Reform of Germany". After transferring from sociology and history to physics, he published his first article on the concept of illustration in modern physics (Preston 2016).
  • Student Leader

    Student Leader
    Feyerabend became a leader of the student philosophy club, Kraft Circle. The club was "centered around Viktor Kraft (attached photo), Feyerabend's dissertation supervisor" (Preston 2016).
  • Doctorate in Philosophy

    Doctorate in Philosophy
    After his thesis on "basic statements", Feyerabend earned a doctorate in philosophy.
  • Education Videos of Paul Feyerabend

    Education Videos of Paul Feyerabend
    An Interview with Feyerabend himself, a philosopher who was a remarkably influential figure in the philosophy of science and sociology of science. He was considered one of the most controversial philosophers of science.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDwoGtPbO5w Ian Hacking talks about Paul Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn. Feyerabend was hypercritical towards the idea of there being rules and absolute logic in science.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNm5Ec-GuE
  • London School of Economics

    London School of Economics
    Traveled to England and concentrated on the quantum theory and Wittgenstein. He studied under Popper and prepared a summary of "Philosophical Investigations", the typescript of Wittgenstein. Joseph Agassi, a peer under Popper, became a friend of Feyerabend (Preston 2016).
  • Returned to Vienna

    Returned to Vienna
    He came back to Vienna and translated Popper's "The Open Society and its Enemies" into German, and became Arthur Pap's research assistant (Preston 2016).
  • Paradox of Analysis

    Feyerabend published an article on the paradox of analysis. He also met his major influence, David Bohm, who was a quantum physicist (Preston 2016).
  • Quantum Theory of Measurement

    "Gave a paper on the quantum theory of measurement to the Colston Research Symposium at the University of Bristol." (Preston 2016).
  • Important Early Writings

    Important Early Writings
    Two of Feyerabend's early papers appeared in the proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, "An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience", and "Complementarity". They consisted of similar grounds to Popper's falsification views, "arguing against positivism and in favour of a scientific realist account of the relation between theory and experience" (Preston 2016).
  • Explanation and Reduction

    Explanation and Reduction
    Feyerabend's "Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism" critiqued current empiricist accounts of explanation and theoretical reduction. He also introduces the concept of incommensurability, which was based on what he claimed to find in "Wittgenstein's Investigations", the "contextual theory of meaning" (Preston 2016).
  • Introduced What is Now Known as Eliminative Materialism

    Introduced What is Now Known as Eliminative Materialism
    Feyerabend's two articles on the Mind and Body Problem implemented the eliminative materialism. At the time he also published "How to be a Good Empiricist", which summed up his point of view (Preston 2016).
  • No Longer an Empiricist

    He decided to quit attempting the empiricist views by publishing "Science Without Experience", which argued that principle experience it is not necessary within the "construction, comprehension or testing of empirical scientific theories" (Preston 2016).
  • Against Method

    Against Method
    The appearance of "Against Method, which set out the thesis that there is no such thing as "the" scientific method, "epistemological anarchism" (Preston 2016).