Book ID: CBB001024733

Tyranny of Science (2011)

unapi

Feyerabend, Paul K. (Author)
Oberheim, Eric (Editor)


Polity Press


Publication Date: 2011
Physical Details: xii + 153 pp.; bibl.; index
Language: English

Paul Feyerabend is one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century and his book Against Method was an international bestseller. In this new book he masterfully weaves together the main elements of his mature philosophy into a gripping tales the story of the rise of rationalism in Ancient Greece that eventually led to the entrenchment of a mythical scientific worldview. Feyerabend argues that some very basic assumptions about science are simply false and that substantial parts of scientific ideology were created on the basis of superficial generalizations that led to absurd misconceptions about the nature of human life. Far from solving the pressing problems of our age, such as war and poverty, scientific theorizing glorifies ephemeral generalities, at the cost of confronting the real particulars that make life meaningful. Objectivity and generality are based on abstraction and, as such, they come at a high price. For abstraction drives a wedge between our thoughts and our experience, resulting in the degeneration of both. Theoreticians, as opposed to practitioners tend to impose a tyranny on the concepts they use, abstracting from the subjective experience that makes life meaningful. Feyerabend argues that practical experience is a better guide to reality than any theory by itself ever could be, and stresses that there is no tyranny that cannot be resisted, even if exerted with the best possible intentions. Provocative and iconoclastic, The Tyranny of Science is one of Feyerabend's last books and one of his best. It will be widely read by everyone interested in the role that science has played, and continues to play, in the shaping of the modern world.

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Reviewed By

Review Kidd, Ian James (2011) Review of "Tyranny of Science". British Journal for the History of Science (p. 576). unapi

Review Rozell, Daniel (2013) Review of "Tyranny of Science". Spontaneous Generations (p. 97). unapi

Review Sankey, Howard (2012) Review of "Tyranny of Science". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 471-476). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001024733/

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Authors & Contributors
Shaw, Jamie
Swift, Joseph
McCain, Kevin
Rice, Collin C.
Braillard, Pierre-Alain
Baptiste Bedessem
Concepts
Methodology of science; scientific method
Philosophy of science
Epistemology
Explanation; hypotheses; theories
Models and modeling in science
History of philosophy of science
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
Places
United States
Austria
Brazil
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