Feyerabend's philosophy / by Eric Oberheim.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Oberheim, Eric.

Series:

Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie, 0344-8142 ; Bd. 73

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Methodology--History--20th century.

Methodology.

Philosophy, Austrian--20th century.

Philosophy, Austrian.

Philosophy, Modern--20th century.

Philosophy, Modern.

Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994.

Feyerabend, Paul.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (332 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Paul Feyerabend ranks among the most exciting and influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century. This reconstruction of his developing ideas combines historical and systematic considerations. Part I examines the three main influences on Feyerabend's philosophical development: Wittgenstein's later philosophy, Popper critical rationalism and Ehrenhaft's experimental effects. Part II focuses on Feyerabend's development and use of the notion of incommensurability at the heart of his philosophical critiques, and investigates his relation to realism. Feyerabend initially developed the notion of incommensurability from ideas he found in Duhem. He used the notion of incommensurability to attack many different forms of conceptual conservativism in philosophy and the natural sciences. He argued against many views on the grounds that that they would constrain the freedom necessary to develop alternative points of view, and thereby hinder scientific advance. Contrary to widespread opinion, he was never a scientific realist. Part III reconstructs Feyerabend's pluralistic conception of knowledge in the context of his pluralistic philosophical method. Feyerabend was a philosophical pluralist, who practiced pluralism in pursuit of progress.

Contents:

Front matter

Preface

Contents

Analytic Table Of Contents

Introduction

Part I. Feyerabend's Philosophical Development

Chapter 1. Facing Feyerabend. Some preliminary problems

Chapter 2. Ludwig Wittgenstein. Meaning and Ontology

Chapter 3. Karl Popper. Using and abusing critical rationalism

Chapter 4. Felix Ehrenhaft. The impotence of experiment

Part II. Feyerabend's Assault on Conceptual Conservativism

Chapter 5. Incommensurability as attack on conceptual conservativism

Chapter 6. Incommensurability and scientific realism

Part III. Feyerabend's Philosophical Pluralism

Chapter 7. Feyerabend's methods

Chapter 8. The role of alternatives in promoting progress

Chapter 9. Feyerabend's philosophical pluralism (1950s-1990s)

Literature

Index

Notes:

Dissertation Universität Hannover 2004.

Revised version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universitat Hannover, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-315) and index.

ISBN:

9783110891768

311089176X

OCLC:

811407731