Paul Feyerabend
There is no single scientific method: major advances broke the accepted rules, so the only rule that always holds is the ironic “anything goes”.
Placement
“Against Method” (1975): no rule of method holds without exception – the only one left standing is the ironic “anything goes”; he called this epistemological anarchism.
Key ideas
- Anything goes
- Methodological pluralism
Teachers: Karl Popper
Influence
Influenced by 3
John Stuart Mill
influenced by
Feyerabend grounded his principle of proliferation – develop rival theories to test accepted ones – in Mill’s defence of free discussion in On Liberty (Against Method, 1975). P. K. Feyerabend, Against Method (1975); J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859); SEP “Paul Feyerabend”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
John Stuart Mill › 1806–1873
Ludwig Wittgenstein
influenced by
Feyerabend, who had planned to study with Wittgenstein in Cambridge, gave an early long account of the Philosophical Investigations (‘Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations’, 1955). P. K. Feyerabend, “Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations”, Philosophical Review 64 (1955); Killing Time (1995); SEP “Paul Feyerabend”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Ludwig Wittgenstein › 1889–1951
Thomas S. Kuhn
influenced by
At Berkeley Feyerabend commented on Kuhn’s draft of Structure (letters, 1960–61); both introduced ‘incommensurability’ in 1962, and Feyerabend later criticised Kuhn’s normal science (‘Consolations for the Specialist’, 1970). P. Hoyningen-Huene (ed.), “Two Letters of Paul Feyerabend to Thomas S. Kuhn on a Draft of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26 (1995); P. K. Feyerabend, “Explanation, Reduction and Empiricism” (1962); “Consolations for the Specialist” (1970); SEP “Paul Feyerabend”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Thomas S. Kuhn › 1922–1996
Criticism
Criticizes 2
Karl Popper studied with
studied with ✓
Feyerabend came to the London School of Economics in 1952–53 on a British Council scholarship to study with Popper – he had hoped to work with Wittgenstein, who died in 1951 – and defended Popper’s views for some years before turning against them. P. Feyerabend, Killing Time (1995)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised
Feyerabend argued that Popper’s falsificationism, applied strictly, would have wiped out science, since every theory conflicts with some known facts (Against Method, 1975, ch. 5). P. Feyerabend, Against Method (1975), ch. 5; “Consolations for the Specialist”, in I. Lakatos & A. Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970)
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Popper › 1902–1994
Imre Lakatos influenced by
influenced by ✓
Feyerabend dedicated Against Method (1975) to Lakatos, ‘friend and fellow-anarchist’, as his half of a planned joint debate book, For and Against Method (publ. 1999). P. K. Feyerabend, Against Method (1975); I. Lakatos and P. K. Feyerabend, For and Against Method (ed. M. Motterlini, 1999); SEP “Paul Feyerabend”
criticised
Feyerabend argued that Lakatos’s methodology of research programmes is ‘anarchism in disguise’, since it gives no rule for when a degenerating programme must be abandoned (Against Method, 1975). P. Feyerabend, Against Method (1975), ch. 16 (the book is dedicated to Lakatos); I. Lakatos & P. Feyerabend, For and Against Method (1999)
Evidence: AI draft
Imre Lakatos › 1922–1974
Works
- 1975Against Method
Anything goes: science as an anarchist enterprise.
Position
Feyerabend started as a Popperian and became the most provocative critic of scientific method. Studying episodes like Galileo’s defence of Copernicus, he argued that great scientific advances often succeeded precisely because researchers broke the rules philosophers had laid down for them. There is no single method that guarantees progress; if any principle holds in all circumstances it is the deliberately ironic “anything goes.” This epistemological anarchism was meant less as chaos than as a plea for pluralism: competing theories, traditions and ways of life should keep each other honest. Feyerabend also demanded that democratic societies should not leave the authority of science unchecked. His writings remain a challenge to every claim of methodological monopoly.
Life & context
Feyerabend was born in Vienna in 1924 and was badly wounded as a soldier in the Second World War. After studies in Vienna, where he also pursued singing and theatre, he went to London to work with Popper. From 1958 he taught at Berkeley for more than three decades, later also at ETH Zurich. He wrote a frank autobiography, Killing Time, shortly before his death.
Further main works
- Science in a Free Society (1978)
- Farewell to Reason (1987)
- Killing Time (1995)
As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made