ABSTRACT
Over thirty years ago, in Against Method, philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend (1975: 17, 21) launched a deconstructive critique of scientific methodology, arguing for “theoretical anarchism” and offering an “outline of an anarchist methodology” in place of mythologized law-and-order rationality. In the book, Feyerabend documents the ways in which methodological innovations in science have historically come wrapped in performance, persuasion, and intrigue – tricks of the trade necessary for gaining a bit of visibility and support, and for freeing intellectual innovation from the stifling orthodoxies of the time. He also reveals the post-hoc reifications by which these tricks are forgotten – that is, the authoritarian reifications by which these undisciplined methodological advances are later defined as wholly scientific, necessary . . . even inevitable. In this way Feyerabend argues that the history of science resembles less a straight line toward greater and more objective knowledge than it does a Fellini-esque carnival careening around the intellectual countryside, putting on little plays and seductions, occasionally falling apart and regrouping. And so for Feyerabend (1975: 23), the lesson is: “The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes” – and the only strategy for anyone serious about progressive knowledge is a refusal to take seriously the cannons of received wisdom.
