ABSTRACT
In Australia a journalist will often write such a sentence as, "The Minister today refuted allegations that he had misled Parliament", when all he means is that the Minister denied these allegations. "To refute" is a verb with 'success grammar'. A journalist who used "refuted" when all he meant was "denied" has used a success-word, but without intending to convey the idea of success, of cognitive achievement, which is part of the word's meaning. He has neutralised a success-word. Having undertaken to neutralise all success-words, Paul Feyerabend promptly forgets all about his undertaking, and when it suits him writes about the history of science like any mere Sarton, Wolf, or Pledge. Feyerabend's promise to neutralise all his success-words in Against Method is carried out baldly enough in some cases. Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, and Feyerabend, are all writers whose position inclines them to deny, or at least makes them more or less reluctant to admit it.
