Paul Feyerabend

Paul Karl Feyerabend, born 13 January 1924 and died 11 February 1994, was an Austrian philosopher best known for his work in philosophy of science, who began his academic career as a lecturer at the University of Bristol before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for three decades. His most famous work is Against Method, published in 1975, in which he argues that there are no universally valid methodological rules for scientific inquiry, and he also wrote on the politics of science, including in his book Science in a Free Society. Feyerabend is recognized as one of the most important twentieth century philosophers of science, often mentioned alongside Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos and N.R. Hanson as a crucial figure in the historical turn in philosophy of science, and his work on scientific pluralism has been markedly influential on the Stanford School and much contemporary philosophy of science; he also wrote on the politics of science, ancient philosophy, philosophy of art and political philosophy, and his final work was an autobiography, Killing Time, completed on his deathbed.