Paul Feyerabend: biography of this philosopher

Feyerabend was one of the most important referents of the philosophy of science.

When we think of science as a whole, we can, in general, have a somewhat romantic idea of something unified in its conception despite the fact that it can be divided into multiple disciplines, with great coincidences in how the data are interpreted and what methodology is used in order to try to explain reality. However, this is not so: throughout history, there have been numerous ways of seeing and doing there have been numerous ways of seeing and doing scienceempiricism, rationalism or scientific realism, among others.

Each of these perspectives has different implications at the level of research and has different considerations as to what things are, how they should be investigated and even what effect belief in a particular theory has on the observed phenomena. One of the most critical views is that of Paul Feyerabend's epistemological anarchism. It is about this author that we are going to talk in this article, in which we are going to give a short biography of Paul Feyerabend. a short biography of Paul Feyerabend..

Brief biography of Paul Feyerabend

Paul Karl Feyerabend was born in the city of Vienna in 1924, being the only son of a middle-class family at a time characterized by famine after the First World War and inflation that weighed down the country's economy. Born to a civil servant father and a seamstress mother, he was born at an advanced age due to the difficulties of life at that time.

Already from childhood he showed great intelligence. He studied at a Realgymnasium in his hometown, learning natural sciences, Latin and English and obtaining very high grades. Likewise, in some subjects such as physics and mathematics he seemed to have a better command even than his own teachers. Also would also display a certain eccentric, ironic and sarcastic behavior, to the point of being expelled from school.to the point of being expelled from school.

During this same vital stage he began to acquire a great taste for reading (including philosophy books, a subject that would begin to interest him and in which he would Excel many years later), theater and singing (even taking classes in the latter and participating in choirs).

When in 1938 Germany annexed Austria to the Third Reich, her parents were happy for it.his parents were delighted and the young Feyerabend (by then a teenager) was impressed by Hitler's oratory, although he would never become an extreme Nazi supporter. According to his own autobiography those years before World War II when he observed political changes and ethnic persecutions were confusing for him.

The Second World War

In 1939 World War II would break out, a year before Feyerabend graduated from high school. Upon graduation, in 1940, he was inducted into the compulsory labor service introduced by the Nazis, the Arbeitsdienst. After being trained in Pirmasens he would be sent to France, performing the task of digging and preparing ditches. At that time he would begin to consider the idea of joining the army, specifically the SS, asking to join the front.

After leaving compulsory service, he returned to Vienna but immediately enlisted in the army. He joined the Wehrmacht Pioneer Corps, receiving military training and later volunteering for officer training in Yugoslavia in 1942. There he received some hard news, which, however, did not generate an intense response in him: his mother had died, committing suicide. His autobiography indicates that he had hoped that the war would be over before he finished his training, but it was not: Feyerabend would be sent to the front lines in Russia..

He received the Iron Cross second class in 1944, after successfully leading a village under enemy fire, and was promoted to lieutenant in the same year. After that he would be sent to Poland in 1945, where the Nazi army had to start retreating as the Soviets advanced. There he was shot several times in the hands and gut, one of them affecting his spine and leaving him paralyzed. He was sent to a hospital in Apolda, where he would spend the rest of the war recovering from his wounds. However, although he was able to walk again the impact of the bullet caused him to need a cane from now on. for the rest of his life.

After the war and still recovering, he worked temporarily as a playwright in Apolda and worked in the local education department. As his health and abilities improved, he moved to Weimar. There he enrolled in various institutions such as the Weimar Academy for various courses in singing, drama, Italian, piano, stage direction and vocalization.

University studies

In 1947 Feyerabend returned to Vienna, where he began his university studies.. Initially he studied history and sociology, since another of his favorite fields, physics, seemed far removed from reality after his experiences in the war. However, the studies he pursued did not seem satisfactory to him and he decided to leave History and start studying Physics at the University of Vienna.

During her studies she also took classes in philosophythat would deeply attract his attention. Initially he would embrace a positivist and empiricist view of science, although contact with professionals such as Ehrenhaft would influence his later vision. He wrote his first article in 1947, on enlightenment in physics.

In 1948 he met Karl Popper he met Karl Popper at a seminar at the Austrian Society in Alpbach, something that would awaken the germ of his own vision.which would awaken the germ of a change in his position on science. He continued to attend the meetings and seminars of that society, at first as a mere spectator but gradually coming to present and even act as scientific secretary. There he would also meet Hollitscher, who would convince him that it is realism that guides and allows the progress of research in science and not positivism or empiricism. That same year he would marry for the first time a student of ethnography named Edeltrud, although they would soon separate.

In addition to the above, in 1949 he also became a member of the Kraft Circlea group of students and philosophers gathered around the figure of the only surviving member of the Vienna Circle, Victor Kraft, whose activity was based on the discussion of philosophical topics from a scientific point of view. In this circle he met many important personalities.

Development of his philosophy

After finishing his studies, Feyerabend began to prepare a doctoral thesis focused on electrodynamics, but he did not manage to solve a series of problems in this field and decided to change the subject of his thesis from physics to philosophy. Thus, under the supervision of Kraft, he received his doctorate in 1951 with the thesis Zur Theorie der Basissätzein which he discussed the basic statements on which scientific knowledge is based according to logical positivism..

After that, and after rejecting an offer to become Bertolt Brecht's secretary, he tried to be accepted as a disciple by another of the authors of the Kraft Circle, Wittgenstein, although he accepted, unfortunately he died before Feyerabend could work with him, in 1951. Although he accepted, he unfortunately died before Feyerabend could work with him, in 1951. Despite this, he managed to work with Karl Popper, whose defense of falsificationism (the belief that the veracity of a theory cannot be demonstrated but its falsity can be demonstrated through experimentation) and critical rationalism initially convinced him, abandoning empiricism and positivism definitively.

In 1952 Feyerabend presented his ideas concerning scientific change. A year later he returned to Vienna, where he worked at various universities and later as an assistant to Arthur Pap. The latter would introduce him to Herbert Feigl, who would influence Feyerabend's ideas with his realist stance (in line with Popper's point of view). He wrote several philosophical articles on quantum mechanics, the most important of which was the one in which he considered that quantum mechanics was the most important of all quantum mechanics.He wrote several philosophical articles on quantum mechanics, of great relevance the one in which he considered that quantum theory was not unquestionable.

In 1955 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Bristol. A year later and after knowing and being influenced by professionals such as David Bohm, Joseph Agassi or Philipp Frank, he married for the second time with a former student named Mary O'Neill, from whom he also separated after a year (she would not be the last of his wives, having married a total of four times throughout his life). Some of his most critical works of empiricism began to be published, embracing scientific realism and Popper's view of the and considering that the interpretation of a relationship is determined by the theories used to explain them.

Relocation and life in the United States

In 1958 he also received an offer to work as a professor at the University of Berkeley, an offer he accepted. In 1959 he became a naturalized American citizen, and in 1960 he started working at the University of California where, under Kuhn's influence, he began to use historical examples in his work. In his work of this period, the concept of incommensurability arose.which determines the impossibility of comparing two theories that do not have the same theoretical language.

He participated in the student revolts and began to be born in him a certain interest in politics, making various types of protest and was even about to be expelled from the University of Berkeley after approving students without having finished the course as a method of protest. Also the contact with the hippie movement that prevailed in those years influenced his thinking. In 1965 he participated in a seminar in Hamburg, in which his thought would end up deriving to what he would later call epistemological anarchism, which is one of his main contributions.

In this context, and alternating his work in Berkeley with those in California (which he would end up resigning in 1968) and later with others in London, Berlin, Yale and Auckland, the author's thought moved further and further away from traditional positions and also away from falsificationism and rationalism.

In London, he met Imre Lakatoswith whom he would have a great friendship that would last until the latter's death. With him, he had planned to publish a publication as an intellectual debate called For and Against MethodLakatos defended the rationalist conception of science while Feyerabend attacked it.

However, Lakatos died in 1974, without completing his part of the work. Feyerabend would finish and publish his work in the book Against Methoda year after the death of his friend. In this publication, he would fully embrace epistemological anarchismFeyerabend, considering that there are no universal methodological rules that always generate progress in science and that it is necessary to vary the methodology in order to achieve an authentic development of knowledge. Deep criticisms were made of this publication, something which, despite his active response, caused him to fall into depression (as happened to him after the death of Lakatos).

In the 1980s continued to work at Berkeley, as well as in Zurich, mostly as a professor of philosophy.mostly as a professor of philosophy.

His death and legacy

Feyerabend's health had several ups and downs throughout his life, but it would be in the nineties when the author suffered a final deterioration. In 1991 he retired, planning to enjoy his retirement and write one last book. Unfortunately, however, in 1993 he was found to have a brain tumor. He continued and finished writing the book, his autobiography, entitled Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend. In 1995 and after several problems such as a stroke, the tumor finally caused his death on February 11, 1994, at the Genolier Clinic in Switzerland.

Although his ideas were highly controversial and criticized, he wasPaul Feyerabend's legacy is of great interest for science, since his idea of epistemological anarchism and his contributions throughout his life allow a different vision of science and stimulate the need to vary the general methodology applied in order to generate new advances.