Paul Feyerabend Quotes About Epistemology

• The idea of a method that contains firm, unchanging, and absolutely binding principles for conducting the business of science meets considerable difficulty when confronted with the results of historical research. We find, then, that there is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or another.

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  Paul Feyerabend

  Paul Feyerabend (1975). “Against method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge”, Verso

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• One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.

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  Paul Feyerabend

  Paul Feyerabend (1993). “Against Method”, p.23, Verso

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• There is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or other. It becomes evident that such violations are not accidental events, they are not results of insufficient knowledge or of inattention which might have been avoided. On the contrary, we see that they are necessary for progress.

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  Paul Feyerabend

  Paul Feyerabend (1993). “Against Method”, p.14, Verso

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