Feyerabend (eBook)

Philosophy, Science and Society

John Preston (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-7802-3 (ISBN)

Infos

This book is the first comprehensive critical study of the work of Paul Feyerabend, one of the foremost twentieth-century philosophers of science.

The book traces the evolution of Feyerabend's thought, beginning with his early attempt to graft insights from Wittgenstein's conception of meaning onto Popper's falsificationist philosophy. The key elements of Feyerabend's model of the acquisition of knowledge are identified and critically evaluated. Feyerabend's early work emerges as a continuation of Popper's philosophy of science, rather than as a contribution to the historical approach to science with which he is usually associated.
In his more notorious later work, Feyerabend claimed that there was, and should be, no such thing as the scientific method. The roots of Feyerabend's 'epistemological anarchism' are exposed and the weaknesses of his cultural relativism are brought out.

Throughout the book, Preston discusses the influence of Feyerabend's thought on contemporary philosophers and traces his stimulating but divided legacy. The book will be of interest to students of philosophy, methodology, and the social sciences.

John Preston is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Reading.

Inhalt

Title Page 3
Copyright 6
Contents 9
Preface 13
Acknowledgements 15
Note on References 16
Introduction: Feyerabend’s Life and Work 17
1 Philosophy and the Aim of Science 25
1.1 Scientific and Analytical Philosophy 25
1.2 The Third-Person Approach to Epistemology 27
1.3 Feyerabend’s Project: A ‘Model for the Acquisition of Knowledge’ 29
1.4 Normative Epistemology, and Falsificationism 30
1.5 Inductive Scepticism 34
1.6 The Ethical Basis of Philosophy 36
2 Meaning: The Attack on Positivism 39
2.1 Wittgenstein’s Conception of Meaning 39
2.2 The Contextual Theory of Meaning 41
2.3 The Contextual Theory of Meaning and Scientific Realism 46
2.4 The Positivist/Realist Dispute 46
2.5 Positivistic Theories of Meaning 50
2.6 Feyerabend’s Attack on the Stability-Thesis 52
3 Theories of Observation 56
3.1 The Theory-Ladenness of Observation-Statements 56
3.2 Feyerabend’s Pragmatic Theory of Observation 61
3.3 Radical Conceptual Change 66
3.4 Humans as Measuring Instruments 68
3.5 The ’Problem of Theoretical Entities’ 70
3.6 The Critique of Sense-Datum Epistemologies 74
4 Scientific Realism and Instrumentalism 77
4.1 Feyerabend’s Scientific Realism 77
4.2 Instrumentalism 79
4.3 Astronomical Instrumentalism 82
4.4 Quantum Instrumentalism 83
4.5 Musgrave on Feyerabend’s Defence of Instrumentalism 85
4.6 Feyerabend’s Attack on Instrumentalism 86
5 Theoretical Monism 90
5.1 The Myth Predicament 90
5.2 Nagel on Science and Reduction 96
5.3 Feyerabend’s Anti-Reductionism 103
5.4 Kuhn’s Historical Case for Paradigm-Monism 104
5.5 Kuhn’s Functional Arguments 109
6 Incommensurability 115
6.1 The Condition of Meaning Invariance 115
6.2 The Thesis of Incommensurability 118
6.3 ‘On the “Meaning” of Scientific Terms’ 120
6.4 The Desirability of Incommensurability 128
6.5 Comparing Incommensurable Theories 131
7 Theoretical Pluralism 140
7.1 The Orthodox Test Model and the Autonomy Principle 140
7.2 The Case of the Brownian Motion 142
7.3 The Generalized Refutation Schema 146
7.4 A New Conception of Empirical Content? 148
7.5 Pluralistic Methodology 152
7.6 Which Principle of Proliferation? 155
8 Materialism 158
8.1 Super-Realism 158
8.2 Science and Material-Object Concepts 161
8.3 Reductive Materialism 166
8.4 Eliminative Materialism 169
8.5 ‘Folk Psychology' 179
9 Science without Method 185
9.1 ‘The Stinkbomb’ 185
9.2 Epistetnological Anarchism 186
9.3 Deductivism and Inductive Methodological Rules 190
9.4 Popper’s Methodological Anarchism 193
9.5 the Linguistic Relativity Principle 197
9.6 The Anthropological Method 202
10 Relativism, Rationalism and a Free Society 207
10.1 Truth, and other Epistemic Ideals 207
10.2 Rationalism vs. Relativism 209
10.3 Idealism, Naturalism, Interactionism 212
10.4 ‘Democratic Relativism’ 216
10.5 The Problem of the Excellence of Science 220
10.6 Science and Society 223
10.7 Conclusion 225
Notes 228
Bibliography 239
Index 247

Rezensionen

'This is a brave, direct, competent, insightful and sympathetic
exposition of the total output of one of the best-known, most
admired, least comprehended philosophers of the second half of the
twentieth century. It is a fair critical assessment of Feyerabend's
work as intriguing and inspired but as falling short of his goal.'
Joseph Agassi, York University, Ontario, Canada

'Preston provides a sympathetic but critical account of
Feyerabend's work. The scope is comprehensive and the treatment is
fair-minded, sensible and thoroughly professional. The content is
certainly better than anything I have encountered on Feyerabend. It
can be read by those who have not read Feyerabend and by those
whose acquaintance with philosophy of science is limited or
non-existent.' William Newton-Smith, Balliol College,
Oxford

'John Preston has done us a signal service in charting the
chages in Feyerabend's thought and in sympathetically explaining
why he thought what he did.' Mind

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.3.2018
• Reihe/Serie: Key Contemporary Thinkers
• Reihe/Serie: Key Contemporary Thinkers
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: attempt • Book • Comprehensive • Conception • Critical • Elements • Evolution • falsificationist • Feyerabend • feyerabends • First • Foremost • Gesellschaftstheorie • Graft • Insights • Knowledge • onto • Paul • Philosophers • Philosophie • Philosophie in den Naturwissenschaften • Philosophy • philosophy of science • Poppers • Science • Social Theory • Sociology • Soziologie • Study • wittgensteins • Work
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-7802-5 / 0745678025
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-7802-3 / 9780745678023