Description
Book SynopsisPhilosopher, physicist, and anarchist Paul Feyerabend was one of the most unconventional scholars of his time. His book Against Method has become a modern classic.
Trade Review"Feyerabend was definitely one of the great thinkers of twentieth century philosophy."
—Philosophy Now
"Feyerabend famously quipped that the only rule of method is that anything goes. Philosophy of Nature sheds light on his transition from critical rationalist to epistemological anarchist. Ranging from Stonehenge and Homer to Bohr and Einstein, the book creatively explores the relations of mythological thought to philosophy and science."
—Howard Sankey, University of Melbourne
"In this book, we can see another side of this multi-faceted figure: Feyerabend as a historical philosopher of nature and as an analyst of the development of ancient Greek philosophy. This puts some of his apparently outrageous positions into perspective and reveals their sometimes quite sophisticated background."
—Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Table of ContentsAn Introduction by Helmut Heit and Eric Oberheim
Editorial Notes
Paul Feyerabend: Philosophy of Nature
Preliminary Note
1. Presuppositions of the Myths, and the Knowledge of their Inventors
1.1. Stone Age Art and Knowledge of Nature
1.2. Megalithic Astronomy (Stonehenge)
1.3. Critique of Primitivist Interpretations of the Prehistoric Era
1.4. The Dynamic Worldview of Stone Age Humans
2. The Structure and Function of Myths
2.1. Theories of Myth
2.2. The Theory of Nature Myths and Structuralism
3. Homer’s Aggregate Universe
3.1. The Paratactic World of Archaic Art
3.2. Worldview and Knowledge in Homer’s Epics
3.3. Views of Reality and the Language of Science: Some Basic Considerations
4. Transition to an Explicitly Conceptual Approach to Nature
4.1. The New World of the Philosophers: Advantages and Disadvantages
4.2. Historical Factors for the Emergence of Philosophy
4.3. Predecessors in Hesiod’s and Oriental Cosmogonies
5. Philosophy of Nature through Parmenides
5.1. Hesiod and Anaximander: Changing Worldviews
5.2. Xenophanes: Critic of Religion and Epistemologist
5.3. Parmenides: The Origins of Western Philosophy of Nature
6. Western Philosophy of Nature from Aristotle to Bohr
6.1. Aristotle’s Research Program
6.2. Descartes: The Mathematical Approach to Nature
6.3. Galileo, Bacon, Agrippa: Empiricism without Foundations
6.4. Hegel: The Dynamics of Concepts
6.5. Newton, Leibniz, Mach: Problems of Mechanism
6.6. Einstein, Bohr, Bohm: Signs of a New Era
7. Conclusion
