Paul Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn

Abstract In this chapter, I want to discuss several aspects of the relationship between Paul Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn. There are seven sections. The next section will contain biographical information about the two, especially when, where, and how these two thinkers came together. Then, in the third section, I’m going to discuss aspects of Kuhn’s and Feyerabend’s theories that have become trademarks. By discussing these issues one can see the greatest parallels between their theories. In the fourth section, I’m going to show the large differences that existed in the 1960s between these two thinkers, which can be seen in Feyerabend’s general criticisms of Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It is important to show these differences because Feyerabend and Kuhn are often seen as sitting in the same boat, as if their opinions in the philosophy of science were identical. This, however, is not the case, because in the l960s they could not put aside their massive ideological differences. In the fifth section, I’m going to analyze Feyerabend’s direct criticism of Kuhn-specifically of Kuhn’s account of normal science. In the sixth section, I’ll critically discuss Feyerabend’s argument against Kuhn’s account. Finally, I’m going to briefly show how, in the late 1980s, Feyerabend changed his opinion about his philosophical relationship to Kuhn.