Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

Notes on References.

Introduction: Feyerabend's Life and Work.

1. Philosophy and the Aim of Science.

2. Meaning: The Attack on Positivism.

3. Theories of Observation.

4. Scientific Realism and Instrumentalism.

5. Theoretical Monism.

6. Incommensurability.

7. Theoretical Pluralism.

8. Materialism.

9. Science without Method.

10. Relativism, Rationalism and a Free Society.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the Author

John Preston is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Reading.

Reviews

'This is a brave, direct, competent, insightful and sympathetic exposition of the total output of one of the best-known, most admired, least comprehended philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. It is a fair critical assessment of Feyerabend's work as intriguing and inspired but as falling short of his goal.' Joseph Agassi, York University, Ontario, Canada
'Preston provides a sympathetic but critical account of Feyerabend's work. The scope is comprehensive and the treatment is fair-minded, sensible and thoroughly professional. The content is certainly better than anything I have encountered on Feyerabend. It can be read by those who have not read Feyerabend and by those whose acquaintance with philosophy of science is limited or non-existent.' William Newton-Smith, Balliol College, Oxford
'John Preston has done us a signal service in charting the chages in Feyerabend's thought and in sympathetically explaining why he thought what he did.' Mind