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Feyerabend, Mill, and Pluralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Elisabeth A. Lloyd
Elisabeth A. Lloyd*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
*
†Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
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Abstract

I suggest following Paul Feyerabend's own advice, and interpreting Feyerabend's work in light of the principles laid out by John Stuart Mill. A review of Mill's essay, On Liberty, emphasizes the importance Mill placed on open and critical discussion for the vitality and progress of various aspects of human life, including the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Many of Feyerabend's more unusual stances, I suggest, are best interpreted as attempts to play certain roles—especially the role of “defender of unpopular minority opinion”—that are necessary to fulfilling Mill's conditions for rational exchange and optimal human development.

Type
Symposium: Paul Feyerabend and His Legacy
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S396 - S407
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank John Preston for the invitation to participate in this Symposium, as well as the other speakers, Paul Churchland and Bas van Fraassen. I am particularly grateful to Mathias Frisch, Ben Hansen, Maria Merritt, Ina Roy, and Eric Schwitzgebel for valuable discussion and suggestions in preparing this talk.

References

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