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Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend on the quantum theory of measurement: A reassessment

(Co-authored with Patrick Fraser) In 1957, Feyerabend delivered a paper titled “On the quantum‐th... more (Co-authored with Patrick Fraser) In 1957, Feyerabend delivered a paper titled “On the quantum‐theory of measurement” at the Colston Research Symposium in Bristol to sketch a completion of von Neumann’s measurement scheme without collapse, using only unitary quantum dynamics and well‐motivated statistical assumptions about macroscopic quantum systems. Feyerabend’s paper has been recognized as an early contribution to quantum measurement, anticipating certain aspects of decoherence. Our paper reassesses the physical and philosophical content of Feyerabend’s contribution, detailing the technical steps as well as its overall philosophical motivations and consequences. Summarizing our results, Feyerabend interpreted collapse as a positivist assumption in quantum mechanics leading to a strict distinction between the uninterpreted formalism of unitary evolution in quantum mechanics and the classically interpreted observational language describing post‐measurement outcomes. Thus, Feyerabend took his the no‐collapse completion of the von Neumann measurement scheme to shows the dispensability of the positivist assumption, leading the way to a realistic interpretation of quantum theory. We note, however, that there are substantial problems with his account of measurement that bring into question its viability as a legitimate foil to the orthodox view. We further argue that his dissatisfaction with the von Neumann measurement scheme is indicative of early views on theoretical pluralism.

Research paper thumbnail of Reinterpreting the universe-multiverse debate in light of inter-model inconsistency in set theory

In this paper I apply the concept of inter-Model Inconsistency in Set Theory (MIST), introduced b... more In this paper I apply the concept of inter-Model Inconsistency in Set Theory (MIST), introduced by Carolin Antos (this volume), to select positions in the current universe-multiverse debate in philosophy of set theory: I reinterpret H. Woodin’s Ultimate LLL, J. D. Hamkins’ multiverse, S.-D. Friedman’s hyperuniverse and the algebraic multiverse as normative strategies to deal with the situation of de facto inconsistency toleration in set theory as described by MIST. In particular, my aim is to situate these positions on the spectrum from inconsistency avoidance to inconsistency toleration. By doing so, I connect a debate in philosophy of set theory with a debate in philosophy of science about the role of inconsistencies in the natural sciences. While there are important differences, like the lack of threatening explosive inferences, I show how specific philosophical positions in the philosophy of set theory can be interpreted as reactions to a state of inconsistency similar to analogous reactions studied in the philosophy of science literature. My hope is that this transfer operation from philosophy of science to mathematics sheds a new light on the current discussion in philosophy of set theory; and that it can help to bring philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science closer together.

Awards by Daniel Kuby

Research paper thumbnail of Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014

The Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014 by the Austrian Academy of the Scien... more The Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014 by the Austrian Academy of the Sciences (ÖAW) has been awarded to Carolin Antos and Daniel Kuby for their pilot project "Forcing in Modern Set Theory: A History of Conceptual Change".

Papers by Daniel Kuby

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend's Reevaluation of Scientific Practice: Quantum Mechanics, Realism and Niels Bohr

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the change in Feyerabend's (meta)philosophy th... more The aim of this paper is to give an account of the change in Feyerabend's (meta)philosophy that made him abandon methodological monism and embrace methodological pluralism. In this paper I offer an explanation in terms of a simple model of 'change of belief through evidence'. My main claim is that the evidence triggering this belief revision can be identified in Feyerabend's technical work in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, in particular his reevaluation of Bohr's contribution to it (1957-1964). This highlights an under-appreciated part of Feyerabend's early work and makes it central to an understanding of the dynamics in his overall philosophy of science.

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend, Paul (1924–94)

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend’s Re-evaluation of Scientific Practice: Quantum Mechanics, Realism And Niels Bohr

Interpreting Feyerabend: Critical Essays, 2021

In this chapter, I offer a specific interpretation of how Feyerabend came from a Popperian critiq... more In this chapter, I offer a specific interpretation of how Feyerabend came from a Popperian critique of the Copenhagen interpretation to a detailed re-evaluation of Niels Bohr’s idea of complementarity. Engaging with this chapter of Feyerabend’s intellectual Werdegang is not only an interesting exercise in Feyerabendian exegesis; an explanation of this change of mind in a very narrow domain – or so it seems – gives the backdrop for Feyerabend’s thoroughgoing turn from methodological monism to methodological pluralism, for which he would became known to a wider audience with his publication of Against Method (Feyerabend 1975a).

Research paper thumbnail of Decision-Based Epistemology: sketching a systematic framework of Feyerabend's metaphilosophy

Synthese, 2020

In this paper I defend the claim that Paul Feyerabend held a robust metaphilosophical position fo... more In this paper I defend the claim that Paul Feyerabend held a robust metaphilosophical position for most of his philosophical career. This position I call Decision-Based Epistemology and reconstruct it in terms of three key components: (1) a form of epistemic voluntarism concerning the justification of philosophical positions and (2) a behaviorist account of philosophical beliefs, which allows him (3) to cast normative arguments concerning philosophical beliefs in scientific methodology, such as realism, in terms of means-ends relations. I then introduce non-naturalist and naturalist variants of his conception of normativity, which I trace back to his mentors Viktor Kraft and Karl Popper, respectively. This distinction, introduced on the metaphilosophical level, can can be put to use to explain key changes in Feyerabend's philosophical proposals, such as the viability of his methodological argument for realism. I conclude that this Decision-Based Epistemology should be further explored by historically embedding Feyerabend's metaphilosophy in a voluntarist tradition of scientific philosophy.

Research paper thumbnail of Carnap, Feyerabend and the pragmatic theory of observation

Paul Feyerabend once made a remark to the effect that his pragmatic theory of observation can be ... more Paul Feyerabend once made a remark to the effect that his pragmatic theory of observation can be traced back to proposals put forward by leading Logical Empiricists during the height of the protocol sentence debate. In this paper I want to vindicate the systematic side of Feyerabend's remark and show that a pragmatic theory of observation can in fact be found in Rudolf Carnap's writings of 1932. I first proceed to dispel a misunderstanding concerning the term "pragmatic" raised by Thomas Oberdan. Following Morris' and Carnap's documented usage, I show that the intended meaning of "pragmatic" refers to a specific semiotic relation between users of a language and their environment describable by empirical means (specifically, the causal relation between the verbal behavior of language users and their environment). I reconstruct such a pragmatic theory in terms of a detector model that interprets observation sentences as bodily dispositions indicating physical events in the surroundings of the detector. I then proceed to show how Feyerabend's later theory of observation picks up central features of Carnap's account and also shares some of the motivations. I conclude by noting how an empirical theory of observation sentences offers a bootstrapping solution to the "basis problem".

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend's 'The concept of intelligibility in modern physics' (1948)

This essay introduces the transcription and translation of Paul Feyerabend's Der Begriff der Vers... more This essay introduces the transcription and translation of Paul Feyerabend's Der Begriff der Verständlichkeit in der modernen Physik [The concept of intelligibility in modern physics] (1948), which is an early essay written by Paul Feyerabend in 1948 on the topic of intelligibility (Verständlichkeit) and visualizability (Anschaulichkeit) of physical theories. The existence of such essay was likely. It is listed in his bibliography as his first publication. Yet the content of the essay was unknown, as no original or copy is extant in Feyerabend's Nachlass and no known published version was available to the communityduntil now. The essay has both historical and philosophical interest: it is, as far as our current knowledge goes, Feyerabend's earliest extant publication. It documents Feyerabend's philosophical interest as a physicist-to-be, in what he himself called his " positivist " phase; and it gives a rare if fragmentary insight into the early discussions of the 'Third Vienna Circle' and, more generally, the philosophical culture of discussion in Vienna.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Paul Feyerabend, The Tyranny of Science. Edited by Eric Oberheim. Cambridge: Polity Press 2011

European Philosophy of Science – Philosophy of Science in Europe and the Viennese Heritage. Vienna Circle Intitute Yearbook. Vol. 17., 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Editorische Anmerkungen zum Vortrag 'Die Dogmen des Logischen Empirismus' von Paul Feyerabend

F. Stadler (Hg.): Vertreibung, Transformation und Rückkehr der Wissenschaftstheorie. Am Beispiel von Rudolf Carnap und Wolfgang Stegmüller. Mit einem Manuskript von Paul Feyerabend über “Die Dogmen des logischen Empirismus” aus dem Nachlass., 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Paul Feyerabend in Wien 1946-1955: Das Österreichische College und der Kraft-Kreis

M. Benedikt, R. Knoll, F. Schwediauer, C. Zehetner (Hrsg.): Auf der Suche nach authentischem Philosophieren. Philosophie in Österreich 1951–2000. Verdrängter Humanismus - verzögerte Aufklärung. Bd. VI., 2010

Conference Presentations by Daniel Kuby

Research paper thumbnail of Paul Feyerabend, logical empiricist: A reappraisal of the continuity between logical empiricism and “post-positivist” philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of A "bottom-up epistemology": Viktor Kraft on discovery, justification and the tasks of philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of Incommensurability -11: The concept of incommensurability in Feyerabend’s dissertation of 1951

""The aim of my talk is to give an account of the idea of incommensurability as it can be found i... more ""The aim of my talk is to give an account of the idea of incommensurability as it can be found in Feyerabend’s unpublished dissertation “Zur Theorie der Basissätze” from 1951. I will defend three claims:

  1. Feyerabend’s early notion of incommensurability was a product of his belated engagement in the Vienna Circle’s protocol sentence debate.
  2. The early Feyerabend didn’t consider incommensurability to be a prima facie factual phenomenon, but a consequence of certain set of stipulated premises, which he firstly developed in his dissertation.
  3. While diachronic incommensurability was conceived as a real consequence, the possibility of synchronic incommensurability was only considered as a thought experiment.""

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend and the 'Historical Turn' in the Philosophy of Science

Research paper thumbnail of A source of Feyerabend's Decision-Based Epistemology: Hugo Dingler's voluntarism

Research paper thumbnail of A "bottom-up epistemology": Viktor Kraft on discovery, justification and the tasks of philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of Wikiwebs für Kommunikationsprozesse

Invited Talks by Daniel Kuby

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend against the historical turn in philosophy of science

"Paul Fey­er­abend (1924–1994) is deemed to be one of the key play­ers in the so-called “his­to­r... more "Paul Fey­er­abend (1924–1994) is deemed to be one of the key play­ers in the so-called “his­to­ri­cal turn” within the phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence of the 1960s and 1970s. Feyerabend’s impact is due to the recep­tion of his major work Against Method (1975), which, toge­ther with Tom Kuhn’s The Struc­ture of Sci­en­ti­fic Revo­lu­ti­ons (1962), is con­side­red a clas­sic of the turn. This popu­lar account hides the lesser-known fact that Fey­er­abend was at the very begin­ning a staunch cri­tic of the his­to­ri­cal turn, even regar­ding Kuhn’s work as “dan­ge­rous”, while his adhe­rence to it came in rather late.

The aim of my rese­arch is to reconstruct Feyerabend’s early cri­ti­que of (a cer­tain use of) descrip­tive approa­ches in phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence and his appa­rent “change of mind”. Con­trary to recent inter­pre­ta­ti­ons of Fey­er­abend that tend to sepa­rate an early ratio­na­list phase and a later post­mo­dern phase (Pres­ton 1997) or that ascribe to Fey­er­abend a gene­ra­li­zed lack of phi­lo­so­phi­cal com­mit­ment (Ober­heim 2006), I argue for a “con­ti­nuist” inter­pre­ta­tion, try­ing to make sense of this change in a sys­te­ma­tic way.

Based on pre­vious stu­dies del­ving into Feyerabend’s early phi­lo­so­phi­cal app­ren­ti­ce­ship in pre– and post-war Vienna, I set out an inter­pre­ta­tion that empha­si­zes the role of “prac­tical rea­son” in Feyerabend’s early con­cep­tion of phi­lo­so­phy and embeds his phi­lo­so­phi­cal approach into a volun­ta­rist tra­di­tion of sci­en­ti­fic phi­lo­so­phy. Pro­ponents of this tra­di­tion high­light the role of voli­tio­nal deci­si­ons in sci­ence and its phi­lo­so­phy, thus enab­ling a nor­ma­tive task of phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence. I reconstruct Feyerabend’s phi­lo­so­phy as a pro­gres­sive radi­ca­liza­tion of the import­ance gran­ted to voli­tio­nal deci­si­ons, which leads to an extreme form of Decision-Based Epis­te­mo­logy (DBE), as I pro­pose to call it.

This per­spec­tive, I cont­end, can make sense of Feyerabend’s argu­ments against the his­to­ri­cal turn and, at the same time, account for Feyerabend’s later adhe­rence to it. Spe­ci­fi­cally, I reconstruct the change as a gra­dual emer­gence of some pro­blems spe­ci­fic to his extreme form of DBE, pro­blems which lead Fey­er­abend to relin­quish its extreme form. Dif­fe­rent fac­tors play a role in the pro­ble­ma­tiza­tion of the radi­cal DBE, the most pro­mi­nent being Feyerabend’s work in the history of sci­ence and (sur­pri­sin­gly) his tech­ni­cal work in the inter­pre­ta­tion of quan­tum mechanics."

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend on the quantum theory of measurement: A reassessment

(Co-authored with Patrick Fraser) In 1957, Feyerabend delivered a paper titled “On the quantum‐th... more (Co-authored with Patrick Fraser) In 1957, Feyerabend delivered a paper titled “On the quantum‐theory of measurement” at the Colston Research Symposium in Bristol to sketch a completion of von Neumann’s measurement scheme without collapse, using only unitary quantum dynamics and well‐motivated statistical assumptions about macroscopic quantum systems. Feyerabend’s paper has been recognized as an early contribution to quantum measurement, anticipating certain aspects of decoherence. Our paper reassesses the physical and philosophical content of Feyerabend’s contribution, detailing the technical steps as well as its overall philosophical motivations and consequences. Summarizing our results, Feyerabend interpreted collapse as a positivist assumption in quantum mechanics leading to a strict distinction between the uninterpreted formalism of unitary evolution in quantum mechanics and the classically interpreted observational language describing post‐measurement outcomes. Thus, Feyerabend took his the no‐collapse completion of the von Neumann measurement scheme to shows the dispensability of the positivist assumption, leading the way to a realistic interpretation of quantum theory. We note, however, that there are substantial problems with his account of measurement that bring into question its viability as a legitimate foil to the orthodox view. We further argue that his dissatisfaction with the von Neumann measurement scheme is indicative of early views on theoretical pluralism.

Research paper thumbnail of Reinterpreting the universe-multiverse debate in light of inter-model inconsistency in set theory

In this paper I apply the concept of inter-Model Inconsistency in Set Theory (MIST), introduced b... more In this paper I apply the concept of inter-Model Inconsistency in Set Theory (MIST), introduced by Carolin Antos (this volume), to select positions in the current universe-multiverse debate in philosophy of set theory: I reinterpret H. Woodin’s Ultimate LLL, J. D. Hamkins’ multiverse, S.-D. Friedman’s hyperuniverse and the algebraic multiverse as normative strategies to deal with the situation of de facto inconsistency toleration in set theory as described by MIST. In particular, my aim is to situate these positions on the spectrum from inconsistency avoidance to inconsistency toleration. By doing so, I connect a debate in philosophy of set theory with a debate in philosophy of science about the role of inconsistencies in the natural sciences. While there are important differences, like the lack of threatening explosive inferences, I show how specific philosophical positions in the philosophy of set theory can be interpreted as reactions to a state of inconsistency similar to analogous reactions studied in the philosophy of science literature. My hope is that this transfer operation from philosophy of science to mathematics sheds a new light on the current discussion in philosophy of set theory; and that it can help to bring philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science closer together.

Research paper thumbnail of Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014

The Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014 by the Austrian Academy of the Scien... more The Bader Prize for the History of the Natural Sciences 2014 by the Austrian Academy of the Sciences (ÖAW) has been awarded to Carolin Antos and Daniel Kuby for their pilot project "Forcing in Modern Set Theory: A History of Conceptual Change".

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend's Reevaluation of Scientific Practice: Quantum Mechanics, Realism and Niels Bohr

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the change in Feyerabend's (meta)philosophy th... more The aim of this paper is to give an account of the change in Feyerabend's (meta)philosophy that made him abandon methodological monism and embrace methodological pluralism. In this paper I offer an explanation in terms of a simple model of 'change of belief through evidence'. My main claim is that the evidence triggering this belief revision can be identified in Feyerabend's technical work in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, in particular his reevaluation of Bohr's contribution to it (1957-1964). This highlights an under-appreciated part of Feyerabend's early work and makes it central to an understanding of the dynamics in his overall philosophy of science.

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend, Paul (1924–94)

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend’s Re-evaluation of Scientific Practice: Quantum Mechanics, Realism And Niels Bohr

Interpreting Feyerabend: Critical Essays, 2021

In this chapter, I offer a specific interpretation of how Feyerabend came from a Popperian critiq... more In this chapter, I offer a specific interpretation of how Feyerabend came from a Popperian critique of the Copenhagen interpretation to a detailed re-evaluation of Niels Bohr’s idea of complementarity. Engaging with this chapter of Feyerabend’s intellectual Werdegang is not only an interesting exercise in Feyerabendian exegesis; an explanation of this change of mind in a very narrow domain – or so it seems – gives the backdrop for Feyerabend’s thoroughgoing turn from methodological monism to methodological pluralism, for which he would became known to a wider audience with his publication of Against Method (Feyerabend 1975a).

Research paper thumbnail of Decision-Based Epistemology: sketching a systematic framework of Feyerabend's metaphilosophy

Synthese, 2020

In this paper I defend the claim that Paul Feyerabend held a robust metaphilosophical position fo... more In this paper I defend the claim that Paul Feyerabend held a robust metaphilosophical position for most of his philosophical career. This position I call Decision-Based Epistemology and reconstruct it in terms of three key components: (1) a form of epistemic voluntarism concerning the justification of philosophical positions and (2) a behaviorist account of philosophical beliefs, which allows him (3) to cast normative arguments concerning philosophical beliefs in scientific methodology, such as realism, in terms of means-ends relations. I then introduce non-naturalist and naturalist variants of his conception of normativity, which I trace back to his mentors Viktor Kraft and Karl Popper, respectively. This distinction, introduced on the metaphilosophical level, can can be put to use to explain key changes in Feyerabend's philosophical proposals, such as the viability of his methodological argument for realism. I conclude that this Decision-Based Epistemology should be further explored by historically embedding Feyerabend's metaphilosophy in a voluntarist tradition of scientific philosophy.

Research paper thumbnail of Carnap, Feyerabend and the pragmatic theory of observation

Paul Feyerabend once made a remark to the effect that his pragmatic theory of observation can be ... more Paul Feyerabend once made a remark to the effect that his pragmatic theory of observation can be traced back to proposals put forward by leading Logical Empiricists during the height of the protocol sentence debate. In this paper I want to vindicate the systematic side of Feyerabend's remark and show that a pragmatic theory of observation can in fact be found in Rudolf Carnap's writings of 1932. I first proceed to dispel a misunderstanding concerning the term "pragmatic" raised by Thomas Oberdan. Following Morris' and Carnap's documented usage, I show that the intended meaning of "pragmatic" refers to a specific semiotic relation between users of a language and their environment describable by empirical means (specifically, the causal relation between the verbal behavior of language users and their environment). I reconstruct such a pragmatic theory in terms of a detector model that interprets observation sentences as bodily dispositions indicating physical events in the surroundings of the detector. I then proceed to show how Feyerabend's later theory of observation picks up central features of Carnap's account and also shares some of the motivations. I conclude by noting how an empirical theory of observation sentences offers a bootstrapping solution to the "basis problem".

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend's 'The concept of intelligibility in modern physics' (1948)

This essay introduces the transcription and translation of Paul Feyerabend's Der Begriff der Vers... more This essay introduces the transcription and translation of Paul Feyerabend's Der Begriff der Verständlichkeit in der modernen Physik [The concept of intelligibility in modern physics] (1948), which is an early essay written by Paul Feyerabend in 1948 on the topic of intelligibility (Verständlichkeit) and visualizability (Anschaulichkeit) of physical theories. The existence of such essay was likely. It is listed in his bibliography as his first publication. Yet the content of the essay was unknown, as no original or copy is extant in Feyerabend's Nachlass and no known published version was available to the communityduntil now. The essay has both historical and philosophical interest: it is, as far as our current knowledge goes, Feyerabend's earliest extant publication. It documents Feyerabend's philosophical interest as a physicist-to-be, in what he himself called his " positivist " phase; and it gives a rare if fragmentary insight into the early discussions of the 'Third Vienna Circle' and, more generally, the philosophical culture of discussion in Vienna.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Paul Feyerabend, The Tyranny of Science. Edited by Eric Oberheim. Cambridge: Polity Press 2011

European Philosophy of Science – Philosophy of Science in Europe and the Viennese Heritage. Vienna Circle Intitute Yearbook. Vol. 17., 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Editorische Anmerkungen zum Vortrag 'Die Dogmen des Logischen Empirismus' von Paul Feyerabend

F. Stadler (Hg.): Vertreibung, Transformation und Rückkehr der Wissenschaftstheorie. Am Beispiel von Rudolf Carnap und Wolfgang Stegmüller. Mit einem Manuskript von Paul Feyerabend über “Die Dogmen des logischen Empirismus” aus dem Nachlass., 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Paul Feyerabend in Wien 1946-1955: Das Österreichische College und der Kraft-Kreis

M. Benedikt, R. Knoll, F. Schwediauer, C. Zehetner (Hrsg.): Auf der Suche nach authentischem Philosophieren. Philosophie in Österreich 1951–2000. Verdrängter Humanismus - verzögerte Aufklärung. Bd. VI., 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Paul Feyerabend, logical empiricist: A reappraisal of the continuity between logical empiricism and “post-positivist” philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of A "bottom-up epistemology": Viktor Kraft on discovery, justification and the tasks of philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of Incommensurability -11: The concept of incommensurability in Feyerabend’s dissertation of 1951

""The aim of my talk is to give an account of the idea of incommensurability as it can be found i... more ""The aim of my talk is to give an account of the idea of incommensurability as it can be found in Feyerabend’s unpublished dissertation “Zur Theorie der Basissätze” from 1951. I will defend three claims:

  1. Feyerabend’s early notion of incommensurability was a product of his belated engagement in the Vienna Circle’s protocol sentence debate.
  2. The early Feyerabend didn’t consider incommensurability to be a prima facie factual phenomenon, but a consequence of certain set of stipulated premises, which he firstly developed in his dissertation.
  3. While diachronic incommensurability was conceived as a real consequence, the possibility of synchronic incommensurability was only considered as a thought experiment.""

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend and the 'Historical Turn' in the Philosophy of Science

Research paper thumbnail of A source of Feyerabend's Decision-Based Epistemology: Hugo Dingler's voluntarism

Research paper thumbnail of A "bottom-up epistemology": Viktor Kraft on discovery, justification and the tasks of philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of Wikiwebs für Kommunikationsprozesse

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend against the historical turn in philosophy of science

"Paul Fey­er­abend (1924–1994) is deemed to be one of the key play­ers in the so-called “his­to­r... more "Paul Fey­er­abend (1924–1994) is deemed to be one of the key play­ers in the so-called “his­to­ri­cal turn” within the phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence of the 1960s and 1970s. Feyerabend’s impact is due to the recep­tion of his major work Against Method (1975), which, toge­ther with Tom Kuhn’s The Struc­ture of Sci­en­ti­fic Revo­lu­ti­ons (1962), is con­side­red a clas­sic of the turn. This popu­lar account hides the lesser-known fact that Fey­er­abend was at the very begin­ning a staunch cri­tic of the his­to­ri­cal turn, even regar­ding Kuhn’s work as “dan­ge­rous”, while his adhe­rence to it came in rather late.

The aim of my rese­arch is to reconstruct Feyerabend’s early cri­ti­que of (a cer­tain use of) descrip­tive approa­ches in phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence and his appa­rent “change of mind”. Con­trary to recent inter­pre­ta­ti­ons of Fey­er­abend that tend to sepa­rate an early ratio­na­list phase and a later post­mo­dern phase (Pres­ton 1997) or that ascribe to Fey­er­abend a gene­ra­li­zed lack of phi­lo­so­phi­cal com­mit­ment (Ober­heim 2006), I argue for a “con­ti­nuist” inter­pre­ta­tion, try­ing to make sense of this change in a sys­te­ma­tic way.

Based on pre­vious stu­dies del­ving into Feyerabend’s early phi­lo­so­phi­cal app­ren­ti­ce­ship in pre– and post-war Vienna, I set out an inter­pre­ta­tion that empha­si­zes the role of “prac­tical rea­son” in Feyerabend’s early con­cep­tion of phi­lo­so­phy and embeds his phi­lo­so­phi­cal approach into a volun­ta­rist tra­di­tion of sci­en­ti­fic phi­lo­so­phy. Pro­ponents of this tra­di­tion high­light the role of voli­tio­nal deci­si­ons in sci­ence and its phi­lo­so­phy, thus enab­ling a nor­ma­tive task of phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence. I reconstruct Feyerabend’s phi­lo­so­phy as a pro­gres­sive radi­ca­liza­tion of the import­ance gran­ted to voli­tio­nal deci­si­ons, which leads to an extreme form of Decision-Based Epis­te­mo­logy (DBE), as I pro­pose to call it.

This per­spec­tive, I cont­end, can make sense of Feyerabend’s argu­ments against the his­to­ri­cal turn and, at the same time, account for Feyerabend’s later adhe­rence to it. Spe­ci­fi­cally, I reconstruct the change as a gra­dual emer­gence of some pro­blems spe­ci­fic to his extreme form of DBE, pro­blems which lead Fey­er­abend to relin­quish its extreme form. Dif­fe­rent fac­tors play a role in the pro­ble­ma­tiza­tion of the radi­cal DBE, the most pro­mi­nent being Feyerabend’s work in the history of sci­ence and (sur­pri­sin­gly) his tech­ni­cal work in the inter­pre­ta­tion of quan­tum mechanics."

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend against the historical turn in philosophy of science

Research paper thumbnail of Epistemic vs. pragmatic reasons to believe that p

The view that epistemic reasons can justify a belief that p is quite uncontroversial, not least b... more The view that epistemic reasons can justify a belief that p is quite uncontroversial, not least because epistemic reasons (evidential reasons in particular) can raise the probability that p is true. Can pragmatic reasons justify a belief that p? Short of a pragmatist theory of truth, a pragmatic reason does not generally raise the probability that p is true. Yet, even within a (moderate) evidentialist framework pragmatic reasons can obtain, most prominently in instances where evidential reasons are not available or inconclusive. My talk will investigate in which sense, if any, we can speak of "pragmatic beliefs" in this case. Does "to believe that p on pragmatic grounds" simply mean "to act as though proposition p were true" (in which case epistemology would seem to collapse into agency and action theory) or can we salvage its epistemic import by appealing e.g. to the notion of acceptance? Further, I will discuss specific arguments where pragmatic reasons to believe that p are said to obtain even though one has already sufficient epistemic reasons to believe that p. Specifically, I will investigate how these two kinds of reasons interrelate and ask under which conditions a pragmatic reason to believe that p may override or block an evidential reason to believe that non-p.

Research paper thumbnail of Gegen die Disziplinierung der Wissenschaftsphilosophie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte: Ein Vorschlag

Research paper thumbnail of On "Reviel Netz: The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics – A Study in Cognitive History"

Research paper thumbnail of Feyerabend vs. Kuhn: Über die ethischen Grundlagen der Historiographie

Research paper thumbnail of Ludovico Geymonat in Wien: der Wiener Kreis und die wissenschaftliche Philosophie in Italien

Research paper thumbnail of Über "Lucio Russo: Die vergessene Revolution oder die Wiedergeburt des antiken Wissens"

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