On Anarchy, or What We Talk About When We Talk About Science.

摘要

In 1975, the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend published his controversial,agonistic, and now infamous manifesto against positivism, Against Method. Claimingthat the fundamental conservatism of science hinders its potential progress, he arguesthat a more “anarchic” approach is necessary for engaging with the radical unknownsof nature. Instead of relying upon an episteme mired in uniformity and objectivity, hewrites, “we must invent a new conceptual system that suspends, or clashes with themost carefully established observations, confounds the most plausible theoreticalprinciples, and introduces perceptions that cannot form part of the existing perceptualworld” (32). For Feyerabend, such a counterintuitive method is epistemologicallynecessary, for only by incorporating religion, myth, philosophy, and the “ramblings ofmadmen” can science ever truly understand a universe that is essentially irrational(68).