Epistemological anarchism or reconstruction of new tradition and rationality? A Critical reflection on Paul Feyerabend’s views

Najafpoor, Aziz; Gitipasand, Fatemeh

Epistemological anarchism or reconstruction of new tradition and rationality? A Critical reflection on Paul Feyerabend’s views

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

aziz najafpoor ¹

Fatemeh Gitipasand ²

¹ Ph.D. student in Philosophy of Science and Technology, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

² Ph.D. Student in Higher Education Development Program, Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

In line with his cultural concerns and protecting various social traditions, Feyerabend denounces the rationality of modern science, emphasizes the principle of ‘anything goes’ and prioritizes individual freedom over the truth. Denying the absolute truth, Feyerabend tries to make room for cultural pluralism and to remove science from the state of being the only reference for determining the authenticity of phenomena. In this paper, it is tried to show that Feyerabend in fact, after criticizing scientific rationality, raises a new rationality which its aim is freedom and has its own method and tradition. Besides some conflicts and ambiguities in his approach, he does not provide a reason for the preference of his rationality over other existing rationalities. We conclude that Feyerabend not only is not an epistemological anarchist, but has its own particular rationality.

Keywords

Feyerabend

epistemological anarchism

rationality

method

science

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