Paul Feyerabend and Rational Pluralism

Abstract

In a conference in Feyerabend’s memory 2012, the organizers challenged participants to do justice to the notorious complexity of his ideas and their relevance to ongoing discussions, rather than dismiss him as an irrationalist. For, clearly, he said some outrageous things that he certainly did not consider true. No doubt his work was significant. For one thing, he popularized criticism of very widespread ideas, especially the idea that the task of the philosophy of science is to justify science as objects of rational belief. He found challenge better than discussion of belief. His pioneering work was an effort to bridge the gap between art and science: he thought the task of philosophers is to render science as accessible to common people as art.