The Tyranny of Science

Paul Feyerabend is one of the greatest philosophers of science ofthe 20th century and his book Against Method is aninternational bestseller. In this new book he masterfully weavestogether the main elements of his mature philosophy into a grippingtale: the story of the rise of rationalism in Ancient Greece thateventually led to the entrenchment of a mythical ?scientificworldview?. In this wide-ranging and accessible book Feyerabend challenges somemodern myths about science, including the myth that ?scienceis successful?. He argues that some very basic assumptionsabout science are simply false and that substantial parts ofscientific ideology were created on the basis of superficialgeneralizations that led to absurd misconceptions about the nature of human life. Far from solving thepressing problems of our age, such as war and poverty, scientifictheorizing glorifies ephemeral generalities, at the cost ofconfronting the real particulars that make life meaningful. Objectivity andgenerality are based on abstraction, and as such, they come at ahigh price. For abstraction drives a wedge between our thoughts andour experience, resulting in the degeneration of both. Theoreticians,as opposed to practitioners, tend to impose a tyranny on theconcepts they use, abstracting away from the subjective experiencethat makes life meaningful. Feyerabend concludes by arguing that practicalexperience is a better guide to reality than any theory, by itself,ever could be, and he stresses that there is no tyranny that cannotbe resisted, even if it is exerted with the best possibleintentions. Provocative and iconoclastic, The Tyranny of Science is oneof Feyerabend?s last books and one of his best. It will bewidely read by everyone interested in the role that science hasplayed, and continues to play, in the shaping of the modern world.