Paul Feyerabend represents the radicalization of the foundations of science. He postulates that science is a methodologically anarchic activity and that it is just one of the possible ways of life. This is because there are several factors that determine scientific development, from metaphysics to politics and economics.
According to Feyerabend, science, like religion, was unilaterally imposed by Western culture. However, although religion is no longer linked to the State and can be freely chosen, science it has not yet managed to dissociate itself (it would be better to say that the State has not yet managed to disassociate itself from the science). Just imagine, for example, how many projects there are that theoretically are viable, from a scientific point of view, such as water cars, hydrogen, etc., but which are shelved or not, they become a reality due to the interests of economic groups (oil, for example) that finance politicians to act in their favor.
For the philosopher, the choice for science is aesthetic, subjective, that is, it depends on an acceptance that is only massively adhered to because it was imposed as a superior way of life. Science, as knowledge, should not be distinguished from non-science, that is, from metaphysics, myth, poetry, etc., since, for Feyerabend, there is no methodological universality, which results in a theoretical pluralism, in which the forms of life and thought can coexist democratically.
Feyerabend sees in justificationism an important and necessary interaction between the justification context it's the discovery context, since, isolated, they are harmful to science. It is an attempt to identify empirical knowledge, not from prescriptions (as for Popper) nor only from descriptions (as for Kuhn). Therefore, it aims to place the hypotheses in debate and voting as in a democratic society, since myth and science have the same structure, thus showing that the separation is artificial.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/o-anarquismo-ciencia-segundo-feyerabend.htm
