Feyerabend's Philosophy

Eric Oberheim

Published by De Gruyter 2006

Feyerabend's Philosophy

Eric Oberheim

Volume 73 in the series Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110891768

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Eric Oberheim, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany.

Reviews

"Mit der Arbeit von Oberheim ist der Startschuss für eine ernsthafte Auseinandersetzung mit der Philosophie von Paul Feyerabend gefallen."
Eckart Menzler-Trott in: www. diadiss.net

Topics

i-vi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Analytic Table Of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Part I. Feyerabend's Philosophical Development
Chapter 1. Facing Feyerabend. Some preliminary problems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Chapter 2. Ludwig Wittgenstein. Meaning and Ontology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter 3. Karl Popper. Using and abusing critical rationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter 4. Felix Ehrenhaft. The impotence of experiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Part II. Feyerabend’s Assault on Conceptual Conservativism
Chapter 5. Incommensurability as attack on conceptual conservativism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Chapter 6. Incommensurability and scientific realism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Part III. Feyerabend’s Philosophical Pluralism
Chapter 7. Feyerabend's methods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Chapter 8. The role of alternatives in promoting progress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Chapter 9. Feyerabend’s philosophical pluralism (1950s-1990s) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 321
Keywords: Ancient philosophy; Ehrenhaft; Felix; Feyerabend; Paul; Popper; Karl; Wittgenstein; Ludwig

eBook

Published: February 13, 2012
ISBN: 9783110891768

Hardcover

Published: November 16, 2006
ISBN: 9783110189070