Rationalism... is a secularized form of the belief in the power of the word of God. Paul Feyerabend More Quotes by Paul Feyerabend More Quotes From Paul Feyerabend There is no coherent knowledge , i.e. no uniform comprehensive account of the world and the events in it. There is no comprehensive truth that goes beyond an enumeration of details, but there are many pieces of information , obtained in different ways from different sources and collected for the benefit of the curious. The best way of presenting such knowledge is the list - and the oldest scientific works were indeed lists of facts, parts, coincidences, problems in several specialized domains. Paul Feyerabend details events facts Those who violate the rules of a language do not enter new territory; they leave the domain of meaningful discourse. Even facts in these circumstances dissolve, because they are shaped by the language and subjected to its limitations. Paul Feyerabend territory meaningful facts What is surprising is that almost all the trends that developed within the sciences, Aristotelianism and an extreme Platonism included, produced results, not only in special domains, but everywhere; there exist highly theoretical branches of biology and highly empirical parts of astrophysics. The world is a complex an many-sided thing. Paul Feyerabend branches special world Given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite. For example, there are circumstances when it is advisable to introduce, elaborate and defend ad hoc hypotheses, or hypotheses which contradict well-established and generally accepted experimental results, or hypotheses whose content is smaller than the content of the existing and empirically adequate alternative, or self-inconsistent hypotheses, and so on. Paul Feyerabend self opposites science Humane science must be adapted to the requirements of a balanced and rewarding life. Paul Feyerabend humane balanced requirements A Universal Good should reflect the reality of the individual benefits that are collected under its name, not the other way around. Paul Feyerabend benefits names reality I had studied Dadaism after the Second World War. What attracted me to this movement was the style its inventors used when not engaged in Dadaistic activities. It was clear, luminous, simple without being banal, precise without being narrow; it was a style adapted to the expression of thought as well as of emotion. I connected this style with the Dadaistic exercises themselves Paul Feyerabend simple exercise war Not only are facts and theories in constant disharmony, they are never as neatly separated as everyone makes them out to be. Paul Feyerabend disharmony theory facts Copernicanism and other essential ingredients of modern science survived only because reason was frequently overruled in their past. Paul Feyerabend essentials science past
