Feyerabend Philosophy, Science And Society

FEYERABEND: Philosophy, Science and Society John Preston Polity Press Copyright © John Preston 1997 The right of John Preston to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 1997 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Editorial office: Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Marketing and production: Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 1JF, UK Published in the USA by: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Commerce Place 350 Main Street Maiden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. ISBN 978-0-7456-6832-1 (Multi-user ebook) A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress. Typeset in 10½ on 12 pt Palatino by Ace Filmsetting Ltd, Frome, Somerset Printed and bound in Great Britain by Marston Lindsay Ross International Ltd, Oxfordshire This book is printed on acid-free paper. Key Contemporary Thinkers Published Jeremy Ahearne, Michel de Certeau: Interpretation and its Other Peter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: The Annates School 1929–1989 Colin Davis, Levinas Simon Evnine, Donald Davidson Andrew Gamble, Hayek: The Iron Cage of Liberty Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship Christopher Hookway, Quine: Language, Experience and Reality Douglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post-Modernism and Beyond Chandran Kukathas and Phillip Pettit, Rawls: A Theory of Justice and its Critics Lois McNay, Foucault: A Critical Introduction Philip Manning, Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology Michael Moriarty, Roland Barthes William Outhwaite, Habermas: A Critical Introduction John Preston, Feyerabend: Philosophy, Science and Society Susan Sellers, Hélène Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and Love Georgia Warnke, Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason Jonathan Wolff, Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State Forthcoming Alison Ainley, Irigaray Sara Beardsworth, Kristeva Michael Best, Galbraith Michael Caesar, Umberto Eco Gideon Calder, Rorty James Carey, Innis and McLuhan Eric Dunning, Norbert Elias Jocelyn Dunphy, Paul Ricoeur Judith Feher-Gurewich, Lacan Kate and Edward Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin Adrian Hayes, Talcott Parsons and the Theory of Action Ian Holliday, Michael Oakeshott Sean Homer, Frederic Jameson Christina Howells, Derrida Simon Jarvis, Adorno Paul Kelly, Ronald Dworkin Carl Levy, Antonio Gramsci Harold Noonan, Frege David Silverman, Sacks Nick Smith, Charles Taylor Geoff Stokes, Popper: Politics, Epistemology and Method Nicholas Walker, Heidegger James Williams, Lyotard Thomas D’Andrea, Alasdair MacIntyre For my parents Contents Preface Acknowledgements Note on References Introduction: Feyerabend’s Life and Work 1 Philosophy and the Aim of Science 1.1 Scientific and Analytical Philosophy 1.2 The Third-Person Approach to Epistemology 1.3 Feyerabend’s Project: A ‘Model for the Acquisition of Knowledge’ 1.4 Normative Epistemology, and Falsificationism 1.5 Inductive Scepticism 1.6 The Ethical Basis of Philosophy 2 Meaning: Th