Epistemological anarchism is an epistemological
theory advanced by Austrian philosopher of
science Paul Feyerabend which holds that there
are no useful and exception-free methodological
rules governing the progress of science or
the growth of knowledge.
It holds that the idea of the operation of
science by fixed, universal rules is unrealistic,
pernicious, and detrimental to science itself.The
use of the term anarchism in the name reflected
the methodological pluralism prescription
of the theory, as the purported scientific
method does not have a monopoly on truth or
useful results.
Feyerabend once famously said that because
there is no fixed scientific method, it is
best to have an "anything goes" attitude toward
methodologies.
Feyerabend felt that science started as a
liberating movement, but over time it had
become increasingly dogmatic and rigid, and
therefore had become increasingly an ideology
and despite its successes science had started
to attain some oppressive features and it
was not possible to come up with an unambiguous
way to distinguish science from religion,
magic, or mythology.
He felt the exclusive dominance of science
as a means of directing society was authoritarian
and ungrounded.
Promulgation of the theory earned Feyerabend
the title of "the worst enemy of science"
from his detractors.
== Rationale ==
The theory draws on the observation that there
is no identifiable fixed scientific method
that is consistent with the practices of the
paradigm of scientific progress – the scientific
revolution.
It is a radical critique of rationalist and
empiricist historiography which tend to represent
the heroes of the scientific revolution as
scrupulous researchers reliant on empirical
research, whereas Feyerabend countered that
Galileo, for example, relied on rhetoric,
propaganda and epistemological tricks to support
his doctrine of heliocentrism and that aesthetic
criteria, personal whims and social factors
were far more prevalent than the dominant
historiographies allowed.Scientific laws such
as those posited by Aristotelian or Newtonian
physics that assumed the stance of objective
models of the universe have been found to
come short in describing the entirety of the
universe.
The movement of universal models from Aristotelian
to Newtonian physics to Einstein's relativity
theory, where each preceding theory has been
refuted as entirely universal model of reality,
illustrates for the epistemological anarchist
that scientific theories do not correspond
to truth, as they are in part cultural manifestations,
and ergo not objective.
Feyerabend drew a comparison between one scientific
paradigm triumphing over or superseding another,
in the same manner a given myth is adapted
and appropriated by a new, triumphant successor
myth in comparative mythology.
Feyerabend contended, with Imre Lakatos, that
the demarcation problem of distinguishing
on objective grounds science from pseudoscience
was irresolvable and thus fatal to the notion
of science run according to fixed, universal
rules.Feyerabend also notes that science's
success is not solely due to its own methods,
but also to its having taken in knowledge
from unscientific sources.
In turn the notion that there is no knowledge
outside science is a 'convenient fairy-tale'
held only by dogmatists who distort history
for the convenience of scientific institutions.
For instance, Copernicus was heavily influenced
by Pythagoras, whose view of the world had
previously been rejected as mystical and irrational.
Hermetic writings played an important role
in the works of Copernicus as well as Newton.
There exists fairly accurate astronomical
knowledge that reaches back even to the Stone
Age, measured in stone observatories in England
and the South Pacific.
Pre-Modern inventions such as crop rotation,
hybrid plants, chemical inventions and architectural
achievements not yet understood like that
of the pyramids are all examples which threaten
the notion that science is the only means
of attaining knowledge.Feyerabend also criticized
science for not having evidence for its own
philosophical precepts, particularly the notions
of Uniformity of Law and of Uniformity of
Process across time and space.
"We have to realize that a unified theory
of the physical world simply does not exist,"
said Feyerabend; "we have theories that work
in restricted regions, we have purely formal
attempts to condense them into a single formula,
we have lots of unfounded claims (such as
the claim that all of chemistry can be reduced
to physics), phenomena that do not fit into
the accepted framework are suppressed; in
physics, which many scientists regard as the
one really basic science, we have now at least
three different points of view...without a
promise of conceptual (and not only formal)
unification".Furthermore, Feyerabend held
that deciding between competing scientific
accounts was complicated by the incommensurability
of scientific theories.
Incommensurability means that scientific theories
cannot be reconciled or synthesized because
the interpretation and practice of science
is always informed by theoretical assumptions,
which leads to proponents of competing theories
using different terms, engaged in different
language-games and thus talking past each
other.
This for Feyerabend was another reason why
the idea of science as proceeding according
to universal, fixed laws was both historically
inaccurate and prescriptively useless.
== Other proponents ==
Terence McKenna was a fan of philosophers
such as Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn.Ian Hacking
was a friend of Feyerabend's, and they corresponded
with and cited each other.
He wrote the introduction and praised the
last edition of Against Method, quoting French
philosopher Jean Largeault, who called it
"more than a book: it is an event".Imre Lakatos
was also a friend of Feyerabend's.
The two wrote letters to each other on the
philosophy of science which would have been
published in a book called For and Against
Method, but the death of Lakatos ended their
plans to produce this dialogue volume.
While Lakatos never publicly labeled himself
so, Feyerabend contended that he was a fellow
epistemological anarchist.
Lakatos was the one who suggested and encouraged
that Feyerabend write a book based on his
philosophy and the lectures he gave in his
classes, which turned out to be his seminal
work Against Method.
== See also ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge
- a brief summary of the argument from Marxists.org
