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Book
Author Preston, John, 1957-

Title Feyerabend : philosophy, science and society / John Preston
Published Cambridge, UK : Polity Press, 1997

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  193 Pre/Fps  AVAILABLE
Description xii, 234 pages ; 24 cm
Series Key contemporary thinkers
Key contemporary thinkers (Cambridge, England)
Contents Introduction: Feyerabend's Life and Work -- Ch. 1. Philosophy and the Aim of Science -- Ch. 2. Meaning: The Attack on Positivism -- Ch. 3. Theories of Observation -- Ch. 4. Scientific Realism and Instrumentalism -- Ch. 5. Theoretical Monism -- Ch. 6. Incommensurability -- Ch. 7. Theoretical Pluralism -- Ch. 8. Materialism -- Ch. 9. Science without Method -- Ch. 10. Relativism, Rationalism and a Free Society
Summary 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 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
Notes Bibliography: p223-230. _ Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994.
Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Philosophers -- Austria.
Science -- Philosophy.
LC no. 97010139
ISBN 0745616763 paperback alkaline paper
0745616755 alkaline paper