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    Cover of Science in a Free Society

    Science in a Free Society

    Paul K. Feyerabend · 1978

    Science in a Free Society is a 1978 book by Paul Feyerabend that continues the argument of his 1975 Against Method and criticizes the primacy of science and the scientific method in free societies. )

    PhilosophyPopular Science
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    1recommend
    3mentions
    3people
    2012–2026years
    33% recommend67% neutral

    Mentions per year

    20122014201620182020202220242026

    What Hacker News says

    1. uoaeiApr 2026
      I recommend for you to read Feyerabend's Science in a Free Society.
      thread
    2. walleeeeApr 2025
      he says something like this in Science in a Free Society, I'll see if I can find it.
      thread
    3. shawn-butlerDec 2012
      Falsification as the royal road to truth was debunked some time ago, and isn't taken very seriously in contemporary philosophy of science. Partly, because Popperian falsification only gets you so far when you look at the actual history of science.

      That is, when you look seriously at what scientists do as opposed to what they say they do when they attempt to justify their work, you will find they are not falsifiers but model-builders. If you like to learn more about how Popper has fared in the philosophy of science, you might find Thomas Kuhn [0] and Paul Feyerabend [1],[2] interesting counterpoints, I would throw in the work of Larry Laudan too as it is a good overview of "realist" attempts to move beyond falsification while trying to avoid Feyerabend's embrace of "relativism." [3],[4]

      Obviously alot of more recent and good literature on the subject!

      [0]: Kuhn, T.S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 [1]: 1975. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge [2]: 1978. Science in a Free Society [3]: 1977. Progress and its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth [4]: 1996. Beyond Positivism and Relativism

      thread

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