Feyerabend’s essay “Science, Freedom and the Good Life” signaled a shift toward criticizing the idea that a single, rule-based scientific method guarantees progress. It helped set the stage for his later argument that rigid methodology can limit discovery.
Feyerabend published “Against method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge” in Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. This essay introduced his challenge to universal rules of method and became the core text later expanded into the 1975 book.
In the early 1970s, Feyerabend and Imre Lakatos planned a paired debate: Lakatos would defend a rational methodology (“For Method”), and Feyerabend would attack it (“Against Method”). The proposed format mattered because it framed Feyerabend’s work as a direct challenge to leading accounts of scientific rationality.
Imre Lakatos died suddenly in 1974, and the collaborative “For and Against Method” plan collapsed. Feyerabend later dedicated the book version of Against Method to Lakatos, but it appeared without the intended point-by-point reply.
Feyerabend published Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge as a book in 1975. It argued that no single, universal scientific method fits real scientific practice, and it became the central text for debates about “epistemological anarchism” and the slogan “anything goes.”
The book’s provocative tone and its criticism of rule-driven rationalism drew intense reviews and public debate in philosophy of science. Much of the controversy centered on whether Feyerabend was rejecting standards entirely or using “anything goes” to expose limits of rigid rules.
Feyerabend answered many major reviews in print, accusing critics of misunderstanding irony and reductio arguments (arguments that push a view to an absurd conclusion). These replies were later collected under the section title “Conversations with Illiterates,” shaping how the debate over Against Method was remembered.
In 1978, Feyerabend published Science in a Free Society, developing the political implications of epistemological anarchism. He argued that scientific authority should be treated like other social powers in a democracy and that citizens should be able to question expert claims.
Feyerabend’s Wissenschaft als Kunst (Science as an Art) appeared in 1984 and continued his criticism of simple, one-track stories about scientific “progress.” It supported a broader view in which styles of inquiry vary across time and culture, reinforcing arguments used against strict method rules.
Feyerabend’s 1987 collection Farewell to Reason pushed debates beyond method into questions about rationalism, relativism, and cultural diversity. Critics and supporters increasingly argued over whether his approach defended healthy pluralism or undermined reasoned criticism.
A revised and enlarged second English edition of Against Method appeared in 1988. It updated the book for a new wave of discussion and also incorporated some material connected to Science in a Free Society, keeping methodological debate active into the late 1980s.
In 1991, Feyerabend published Three Dialogues on Knowledge, presenting his ideas in dialogue form and expressing increasing discontent with some versions of relativism while still rejecting strong “objectivist” claims. The book marked a late-stage attempt to clarify what his earlier attacks on method were—and were not—meant to endorse.
A third revised and enlarged edition of Against Method was published in 1993, including new introductory material tied to translation and reception. By this point, “epistemological anarchism” had become a key reference point in scientific method debates—often as a warning against rigid rules, and sometimes as a contested label for Feyerabend’s broader pluralism.
In 1993 Feyerabend developed an inoperable brain tumor and was hospitalized, and he died in 1994. His death effectively closed the main period of direct, first-person interventions that had driven the 1970–1990 disputes over Against Method and “epistemological anarchism.”
Paul Feyerabend's Against Method and Epistemological Anarchism Debates (1970–1990)