Against Method

Introduction

Against Method appeared in 1975 with the subtitle “Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge”. It was meant as one half of a joint book with Imre Lakatos, who was to defend scientific rationality; Lakatos died in 1974 and his part was never written. The core of the book is a case study of Galileo, intended to show that science advanced by breaking methodological rules – through rhetoric and ad hoc moves as well as observation and argument. “Anything goes” is offered less as a method than as the only rule that survives such a history. Critics charged Feyerabend with relativism and irrationalism; he revised the book in 1988 and 1993.

Connections

Builds on

• On Liberty1859 · John Stuart Mill
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions1962 · Thomas S. Kuhn

Criticizes

• The Logic of Scientific Discovery1934 · Karl Popper