Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994)

It is impossible to study and understand Feyerabend without some knowledge of his life and personality. A good place to begin is his autobiography, Killing Time (Chicago, 1995), although its treatment of certain themes and events can be rather choppy. There are also many biographical pieces scattered around both philosophical journals and the popular press, including many such studies and remarks in Preston, Munevar, and Lamb’s edited volume, The Worst Enemy of Science (Oxford, 2000). I don’t intend to summarise these here, although one day my hope is to write a biographical study of this ‘worst enemy of science’ (which, of course, is an unfair label, although one which, perhaps, Feyerabend would have cheerfully consented to, if only to rile his critics and intrigue those unfamiliar with him!)

(These two photographs were both taken by W.J. Broad and appear in the article ‘Paul Feyerabend: Science and the Anarchist’, Science vol. 206, 2 Nov 1979).

Email: i.j.kidd@durham.ac.uk

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