Against Method

Against Method: Outline of an Anarchist Theory of Knowledge

Cover of the first edition
Author	Paul Feyerabend
Language	English
Subject	History of Science, Epistemology
Publisher	New Left Books
Publication date	1975
Media type	Print
ISBN

Against Method: Outline of an Anarchist Theory of Knowledge is a 1975 book about the philosophy of science by Paul Feyerabend, in which he argues that science is an anarchic enterprise, not a nomic (customary) one. In the context of this work, the term anarchy refers to epistemological anarchy.

Feyerabend divides his argument into an abstract critique followed by a number of historical case studies.

The abstract critique is a reductio ad absurdum of methodological monism (the belief that only a single methodology can produce scientific progress). Feyerabend goes on to identify four features of methodological monism: the principle of falsification, a demand for increased empirical content, the forbidding of ad hoc hypotheses and the consistency condition. He then demonstrates that these features imply that science could not progress, hence an absurdity for proponents of the scientific method.

The historical case studies also act as a reductio. Feyerabend takes the premise that Galileo's advancing of a heliocentric cosmology was an example of scientific progress. He then demonstrates that Galileo did not adhere to the conditions of methodological monism. Feyerabend also argues that, if Galileo had adhered to the conditions of methodological monism, then he could not have advanced a heliocentric cosmology. This implies that scientific progress would have been impaired by methodological monism. Again, an absurdity for proponents of the scientific method.

Feyerabend summarises his reductios with the phrase "anything goes". This is his sarcastic imitation of "the terrified reaction of a rationalist who takes a closer look at history".

Some have seen the publication of Against Method as leading to Feyerabend's isolation from the community of philosophers of science, who objected to his view that there is no such thing as the scientific method.

The first edition of Against Method went through several reprintings until the revised (second) edition came out in 1988. A further revision produced a third edition in 1993. The most recent edition, the fourth, was published by Verso Books, in 2010, with a new introduction by Ian Hacking.