From Homeric gods to galaxies, from love affairs to perspective in painting, Paul Feyerabend revelled in the physical and cultural abundance that surrounds us. He found it equally striking that human senses and human intelligence are able to take in only a fraction of these riches. From this fraction, scientists, artists, all of us construct encompassing abstractions and stereotypes. This basic human trait is at the heart of "Conquest of Abundance", the book on which Feyerabend was at work when he died in 1994. Prepared from drafts of the manuscript left at his death, working notes, and lectures and articles Feyerabend wrote while the larger work was in progress, "Conquest of Abundance" offers up exploration and startling insights with the charm, lucidity, and sense of mischief that are his hallmarks. Feyerabend is fascinated by how we attempt to explain and predict the mysteries of the natural world, and he describes ways in which we abstract experience, explain anomalies, and reduce wonder to formulas and equations. Through his exploration of the positive and negative consequences of these efforts, Feyerabend reveals the "conquest of abundance" as an integral part of the history and character of Western civilization. Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) was educated in Europe and held numerous teaching posts throughout his career, including at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1959 to 1990. His "Against Method" - translated into 17 languages - is a classic of modern philosophy of science. The University of Chicago Press published his autobiography, "Killing Time", in 1995.

Finished only weeks before his death in 1994, this autobiography traces the trajectory that led Feyerabend from an isolated, lower-middle-class childhood in Vienna to the height of international academic success as one of this century's most influential intellectuals. He writes of his experience in the German army on the Russian front, where three bullets left him crippled, impotent, and in lifelong pain. He recalls his promising talent as an operatic tenor (a lifelong passion), his encounters with everyone from Martin Buber to Bertolt Brecht, innumerable love affairs, four marriages, and a career so rich he once held tenured positions at four universities at the same time. Although not written as an intellectual autobiography, "Killing Time" sketches the people, ideas, and conflicts of 60 years. Feyerabend writes frankly of complicated relationships with his mentor Karl Popper and his friend and frequent opponent Imre Lakatos, and his reactions to a growing reputation as the "worst enemy of science."

Paul Feyerabend's globally acclaimed work, which sparked and continues to stimulate fierce debate, examines the deficiencies of many widespread ideas about scientific progress and the nature of knowledge. Feyerabend argues that scientific advances can only be understood in a historical context. He looks at the way the philosophy of science has consistently overemphasized practice over method, and considers the possibility that anarchism could replace rationalism in the theory of knowledge.
This updated edition of the classic text includes a new introduction by Ian Hacking, one of the most important contemporary philosophers of science. Hacking reflects on both Feyerabend's life and personality as well as the broader significance of the book for current discussions.

The work that helped to determine Paul Feyerabend's fame and notoriety, "Against Method, " stemmed from Imre Lakatos's challenge: "In 1970 Imre cornered me at a party. 'Paul, ' he said, 'you have such strange ideas. Why don't you write them down? I shall write a reply, we publish the whole thing and I promise you--we shall have a lot of fun.' " Although Lakatos died before he could write his reply, "For and Against Method" reconstructs his original counter-arguments from lectures and correspondence previously unpublished in English, allowing us to enjoy the "fun" two of this century's most eminent philosophers had, matching their wits and ideas on the subject of the scientific method.
"For and Against Method" opens with an imaginary dialogue between Lakatos and Feyerabend, which Matteo Motterlini has constructed, based on their published works, to synthesize their positions and arguments. Part one presents the transcripts of the last lectures on method that Lakatos delivered. Part two, Feyerabend's response, consists of a previously published essay on anarchism, which began the attack on Lakatos's position that Feyerabend later continued in "Against Method." The third and longest section consists of the correspondence Lakatos and Feyerabend exchanged on method and many other issues and ideas, as well as the events of their daily lives, between 1968 and Lakatos's death in 1974.
The delight Lakatos and Feyerabend took in philosophical debate, and the relish with which they sparred, come to life again in "For and Against Method, " making it essential and lively reading for anyone interested in these two fascinating and controversial thinkers and their immense contributions to philosophy of science.
"The writings in this volume are of considerable intellectual importance, and will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the development of the philosophical views of Lakatos and Feyerabend, or indeed with the development of philosophy of science in general during this crucial period."--Donald Gillies, "British Journal for the Philosophy of Science" (on the Italian edition)
"A stimulating exchange of letters between two philosophical entertainers."--Tariq Ali, "The Independent"
Imre Lakatos (1922-1974) was professor of logic at the London School of Economics. He was the author of "Proofs and Refutations" and the two-volume "Philosophical Papers." Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) was educated in Europe and held numerous teaching posts throughout his career. Among his books are "Against Method"; "Science in a Free Society"; "Farewell to Reason"; and "Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend," the last published by the University of Chicago Press.

Die Aufsatze in diesem Band befassen sich mit gewissen Aspekten der Rolle der Wissenschaften in unserer Kultur. Im ersten Teil wird gefragt, ob die Wissenschaft einen Beitrag zu unserem Weltbild leisten kann, oder ob sie einzig dazu taugt, Voraussagen zu machen oder Erfahrungen zu ordnen in einer Welt, deren Zuge durch andere uberlegungen bereits festgelegt sind. Im zweiten Teil wird gefragt, ob die Methoden und Ergebnisse der Wissen- schaft wirklich die immense Autoritat haben, die man ihnen heute zuschreibt. Die Antwort auf die erste Frage lautet: die Wissenschaft kann eine Kosmolo- gie im vollen Sinne des Wortes sein, sie ist in dieser Hinsicht der Religion, der Philosophie, dem Alltagsdenken, dem Mythos sicher nicht untergeordnet. Ich erreiche diese Antwort auf dem Umweg uber die Diskussion eines Problems, das in der Literatur den etwas pompoesen Namen 'Das Problem der Existenz theoreti- scher Entitaten' erhalten hat. Die Antwort auf die zweite Frage lautet: die Wissenschaft ist anderen Ideolo- gien aber auch nicht ubergeordnet, sie hat keine hoehere Autoritat als jene. Diese Antwort erhalte ich in zwei Schritten. Erstens durch eine Kritik der Wissenschafts- theorie, wo man ja zeigen will, warum die Wissenschaft so hervorragt. Zweitens durch eine Kritik der von den Wissenschaften selbst gemachten Anspruche.

The work that helped to determine Paul Feyerabend's fame and notoriety, "Against Method," stemmed from Imre Lakatos's challenge: "In 1970 Imre cornered me at a party. "Paul", he said, "you have such strange ideas. Why don't you write them down? I shall write a reply, we publish the whole thing and I promise you - we shall have a lot of fun." Although Lakatos died before he could write his reply, this text reconstructs his original counter-arguments from lectures and correspondence previously unpublished in English, allowing us to enjoy the "fun" two of this century's most eminent philosophers had, matching their wits and ideas on the subject of the scientific method. The text opens with an imaginary dialogue between Lakatos and Feyerabend, which Matteo Motterlini has constructed, based on their published works, to synthesize their positions and arguments. Part one presents the transcripts of the last lectures on method that Lakatos delivered. Part two, Feyerabend's response, consists of a previously published essay on anarchism, which began the attack on Lakatos's position that Feyerabend later continued in "Against Method." The third and longest section consists of the correspondence Lakatos and Feyerabend exchanged on method and many other issues and ideas, as well as the events of their daily lives, between 1968 and Lakatos's death in 1974.

No study in the philosophy of science created such controversy in the seventies as Paul Feyerabend's "Against Method." In this work, Feyerabend reviews that controversy, and extends his critique beyond the problem of scientific rules and methods, to the social function and direction of science today.
In the first part of the book, he launches a sustained and irreverent attack on the prestige of science in the West. The lofty authority of the "expert" claimed by scientists is, he argues, incompatible with any genuine democracy, and often merely serves to conceal entrenched prejudices and divided opinions with the scientific community itself. Feyerabend insists that these can and should be subjected to the arbitration of the lay population, whose closes interests they constantly affect--as struggles over atomic energy programs so powerfully attest.
Calling for far greater diversity in the content of education to facilitate democratic decisions over such issues, Feyerabend recounts the origin and development of his own ideas--successively engaged by Brecht, Ehrenhaft, Popper, Mill and Lakatos--in a spirited intellectual self-portrait.
" Science in a Free Society" is a striking intervention into one of the most topical debates in contemporary culture and politics.

Farewell to Reason offers a vigorous challenge to the scientific rationalism that underlies Western ideals of "progress" and "development," whose damaging social and ecological consequences are now widely recognized. For all their variety in theme and occasion, the essays in this book share a consistent philosophical purpose. Whether discussing Greek art and thought, vindicating the church's battle with Galileo, exploring the development of quantum physics or exposing the dogmatism of Karl Popper, Feyerabend defends a relativist and historicist notion of the sciences. The appeal to reason, he insists, is empty, and must be replaced by a notion of science that subordinates it to the needs of citizens and communities. Provocative, polemical and rigorously argued, Farewell to Reason will infuriate Feyerabend's critics and delight his many admirers.