Feyerabend and Scientific Values Tightrope-Walking Rationality
Every philosopher of science, and every student of the philosophy of science, has heard of Paul Feyerabend: the iconoclast who supposedly asserted that science is not rational, nor objective, but is characterised by anarchism, relativism, subjectivism and
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BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Editors ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University JÜRGEN RENN, Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science KOSTAS GAVROGLU, University of Athens
Editorial Advisory Board THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University ADOLF GRÜNBAUM, University of Pittsburgh SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University MARX W. WARTOFSKY†, (Editor 1960–1997)
VOLUME 235
FEYERABEND AND SCIENTIFIC VALUES Tightrope-Walking Rationality by
ROBERT P. FARRELL School of Liberal Arts, The University of Newcastle, Australia
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-6309-0
ISBN 978-94-017-1542-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-1542-3
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
CONTENTS
preface ............................................................................................................ ix Introduction ..................................................................................................... ! 1 Feyerabend' s Reductio ad Absurdum of 'Rationalist' Philosophies ............ 5 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 5 1.2 Feyerabend's Conception of 'Rationalist' Philosophy ........................... 7 1.3 Feyerabend's Reductio . ....................................................................... 12 1.4 Feyerabend, Galileo and 'Rationalist' Philosophies ............................ 18 1.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 18 1.4.2 The Reductio ad Absurdum of Empiricism................................. 18 1.4.3 The Reductio ad Absurdum of Popper's Falsificationism ........... 26 1.4.4 Galileo and Lakatos's Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes .......................................................................................... 35 1.5 Feyerabend's Rhetoric: Propaganda, Irrationality and Subjective Wishes ....................................................................................................... 39 2 Feyerabend, Lakatos and Anarchism ........................................................ .44 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 44 2.2 Feyerabend's Reductio of Lakatos's MSRP ....................................... .46 2.2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................
