The Legacy of Paulus Empiricus

Paul K. Feyerabend was a sceptical master and iconoclast about the philosophy of science. He denounced the break between the abstract, normative, philosophical accounts of science and the actual, complex and context-dependent scientific practice. Feyerabend’s first iconoclastic enterprise was directed against philosophical empiricism: roughly, the view that what is to be believed is what experiences establishes, and no more. In fact, Feyerabend’s line of attack is broad and applies to any foundationalist epistemology.