Book contents
- Interpreting Feyerabend
- Interpreting Feyerabend
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Feyerabend on Art and Science
- Chapter 2 The Coherence of Feyerabend’s Pluralist Realism
- Chapter 3 Feyerabend’s General Theory of Scientific Change
- Chapter 4 Feyerabend’s Theoretical Pluralism
- Chapter 5 Epistemological Anarchism Meets Epistemic Voluntarism
- Chapter 6 Feyerabend Never Was an Eliminative Materialist
- Chapter 7 Feyerabend’s Re-evaluation of Scientific Practice
- Chapter 8 On Feyerabend, General Relativity, and “Unreasonable” Universes
- Chapter 9 Feyerabend, Science and Scientism
- Chapter 10 Against Expertise
- Chapter 11 A Way Forward for Citizen Science
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Feyerabend’s General Theory of Scientific Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2021
- Interpreting Feyerabend
- Interpreting Feyerabend
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Feyerabend on Art and Science
- Chapter 2 The Coherence of Feyerabend’s Pluralist Realism
- Chapter 3 Feyerabend’s General Theory of Scientific Change
- Chapter 4 Feyerabend’s Theoretical Pluralism
- Chapter 5 Epistemological Anarchism Meets Epistemic Voluntarism
- Chapter 6 Feyerabend Never Was an Eliminative Materialist
- Chapter 7 Feyerabend’s Re-evaluation of Scientific Practice
- Chapter 8 On Feyerabend, General Relativity, and “Unreasonable” Universes
- Chapter 9 Feyerabend, Science and Scientism
- Chapter 10 Against Expertise
- Chapter 11 A Way Forward for Citizen Science
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Why did Feyerabend never detail a general account of the patterns by which various elements of scientific theorising (theories, methods, etc.) change over time? In other words, why did he never author a general theory of scientific change? To anyone even remotely familiar with the works of Feyerabend; this question may sound absurdly out of place. After all, Feyerabend spent his whole career arguing against the alleged rationality of science and fervently opposing the idea of a fixed and universal method of theory evaluation. With his assertion that ‘science is not one thing, it is many’ (Feyerabend 1992, p. 6; see also Feyerabend 2011, p. 56), he is nothing short of a godfather of the disunity of science movement that revels in its explicitly anti-theoretical approach to the process of scientific change (see Lloyd 1996, p. 261). Surely, Feyerabend would be the last person to search for any general patterns of scientific change!
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- Information
- Interpreting FeyerabendCritical Essays, pp. 57 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021