IBP Psychology and Science

Chapter 10: Feyerabend’s anarchistic theory of science

We seem to be having trouble with our search for the characterisation of science that will serve to pick out what distinguishes it from other kinds of knowledge.

Feyerabend’s case against method:

• There is no such method and, indeed, that science does not possess features that render it necessarily superior to other forms of knowledge
• ‘Anything goes’
• Feyerabend’s main line of argument attempts to undermine characterisations of method and progress in science offered by philosophers by challenging them on their own ground
• He takes examples of scientific change which his opponents consider to be classic instances of scientific progress and shows that, as a matter of historical fact, those changes did not conform to the theories of science proposed by those philosophers
  • Galileo tricked people through techniques of persuasion to believe him that Venus and Mars do not change size
• Kuhn’s relativist appeal to social consensus of scientific theory in deciding which paradigm to use, was rejected by Feyerabend because he felt Kuhn didn’t distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate ways of achieving consensus
• Since Feyerabend believed no one had been able to properly explain why science had such a high status in society, he claimed this status was not justified

Feyerabend’s advocacy of freedom:

• If we take methodological constraints away from scientists, that they’re more free, which allows them to choose between science and other forms of knowledge
• Feyerabend felt science holds such a high position in society that there is no separation between science and state, like there is with state and church
• There is no scientific method. Scientists should follow their subjective wishes. Anything goes.

Critique of Feyerabend’s individualism:

• Society may change but what stays is that there is a situation we live in that puts constraints on what we can do. There cannot be a generalised appeal to unconstrained freedom in real life
• How could be possibly get such a constraint-free society into existence? How would that function?

Resources:

What is This Thing Called Science 4^th Edition (CHALMERS)