The abundant world: Paul Feyerabend's metaphysics of science

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 57:142-154 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to provide an interpretation of Feyerabend's metaphysics of science as found in late works like Conquest of Abundance and Tyranny of Science. Feyerabend's late metaphysics consists of an attempt to criticize and provide a systematic alternative to traditional scientific realism, a package of views he sometimes referred to as “scientific materialism.” Scientific materialism is objectionable not only on metaphysical grounds, nor because it provides a poor ground for understanding science, but because it implies problematic claims about the epistemic and cultural authority of science, claims incompatible with situating science properly in democratic societies. I show how Feyerabend's metaphysical view, which I call “the abundant world” or “abundant realism,” constitute a sophisticated and challenging form of ontological pluralism that makes interesting connections with contemporary philosophy of science and issues of the political and policy role of science in a democratic society.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 79,912

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Feyerabend on the Ineffability of Reality.Ian James Kidd - 2013 - In Asa Kasher & Jeanine Diller (eds.), Models of God and Other Ultimate Realities. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 849-860..
Reason in history: Paul Feyerabend's autobiography.John Kadvany - 1996 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 39 (1):141 – 146.
Paul Feyerabend und Thomas Kuhn.Paul Hoyningen-Huene - 2002 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 33 (1):61-83.
Reappraising Feyerabend.Ian James Kidd & Matthew Brown - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 57:00-000.
Paul K. Feyerabend.Joachim Jung - 2000 - In Paul Feyerabend, John Preston, Gonzalo Munévar & David Lamb (eds.), The Worst Enemy of Science?: Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend. Oxford University Press. pp. 159.
Feyerabend's metaphysics: Process-realism, or voluntarist-idealism? [REVIEW]Robert P. Farell - 2001 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 32 (2):351-369.
Thomas Kuhn on revolution and Paul Feyerabend on anarchy.Thomas J. Hickey - 2005 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 33 (1):102-114.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-02-04

Downloads
97 (#136,750)

6 months
11 (#98,605)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Matthew J. Brown
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

Citations of this work

Was Feyerabend a Postmodernist?Ian James Kidd - 2016 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 30 (1):55-68.
John Dewey's pragmatist alternative to the belief-acceptance dichotomy.Matthew J. Brown - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 53:62-70.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Realist Ennui and the Base Rate Fallacy.P. D. Magnus & Craig Callender - 2004 - Philosophy of Science 71 (3):320-338.
Mind-body identity, privacy, and categories.Richard Rorty - 1965 - Review of Metaphysics 19 (1):24-54.
Materialism and the mind-body problem.Paul Feyerabend - 1963 - Review of Metaphysics 17 (1):49-67.
How to defend society against science.Paul Feyerabend - 1975 - Radical Philosophy 11 (1):3-9.

View all 38 references / Add more references