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