1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910788422303321

Autore

Oberheim Eric

Titolo

Feyerabend's philosophy [[electronic resource] /] / by Eric Oberheim

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; New York, : Walter de Gruyter, c2006

ISBN

3-11-089176-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (332 p.)

Collana

Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie, , 0344-8142 ; ; Bd. 73

Classificazione

CI 2237

Disciplina

191

Soggetti

Methodology - History - 20th century

Philosophy, Austrian - 20th century

Philosophy, Modern - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Revised version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hannover, 2004.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-315) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Preface -- Contents -- Analytic Table Of Contents -- Introduction -- Part I. Feyerabend's Philosophical Development -- Chapter 1. Facing Feyerabend. Some preliminary problems -- Chapter 2. Ludwig Wittgenstein. Meaning and Ontology -- Chapter 3. Karl Popper. Using and abusing critical rationalism -- Chapter 4. Felix Ehrenhaft. The impotence of experiment -- Part II. Feyerabend's Assault on Conceptual Conservativism -- Chapter 5. Incommensurability as attack on conceptual conservativism -- Chapter 6. Incommensurability and scientific realism -- Part III. Feyerabend's Philosophical Pluralism -- Chapter 7. Feyerabend's methods -- Chapter 8. The role of alternatives in promoting progress -- Chapter 9. Feyerabend's philosophical pluralism (1950s-1990s) -- Literature -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.