/lit/ - Literature

HAIL LORD FEYERABEND!

" * People have different professions, diferent points of view. They are like observers looking at the world through the narrow windows of an otherwise closed structure. Occasionally they assemble at the center and discuss what they have seen; then one observer will talk about a beautiful landscape with red trees, a red sky, and a red lake in the middle; the next one about an infinite blue plane without articulation; and the third about an impressive, five-floor-high building; they will quarrel. The observer on top of the structure (me) can only laugh at their quarrels-but for them the quarrels will be real and he (the observer on top) will be an unworldly dreamer. Real life... is exactly like that. Every person has his own well-defined opinions, which color the section of the world he percieves. And when people come together, when they try to discover the nature of the whole which they belong, they are bound to talk past each other; they will understand neither themselves nor their companions. "

I've never heard of him but I love him already. Post some more quotes and some suggested reading please, OP.

>>1452995

HAIL FEYERABEND!

"Ultimate Reality, if such an entity can be postulated, is ineffable"

>>1452999

read his wikiquote, see which book you like best, go from there. snippets of all his major works are there.

This guy is my favorite.

All Hail Feyerabend
All hail discordia

"Rationalism is a secularized form of the belief in the power of the Word of God."

Post your favorite feyerabend quotes, bitches

"Mathematical Reasoning is no only exact; it has its own criteria of reality "

Hail Feyerabend The Great!
All Hail are Lady of Discord!

" Experts have a vested interest in their own playpens, and so they will quite naturally argue that 'education' is impossible without them (can you imagine an Oxford philosopher, or an elementary particle physicist arguing himself out of good money?)"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL FEYERABEND!

"Arguments hardly affect the faithful- their beliefs have an entirely different foundation."

This guy has undoubtedly changed my whole life and view of the world, Totally one of the most underrated philosophers of the 20th century

"Without a constant misuse of language, there cannot be any discovery, any progress."

word

"A Universal Good should reflect the reality of the individual benefits that are collected under its name, not the other way around."

idk a lot of feyerabends work, i just know this quote rocked my fucking world when i saw it

anything goes, /lit/fags

shit man, i didnt even know it was his birthday

"'Truth', written 'in capital letters', is an orphan in this world, without power and influence... ['Reason'] cannot stand diverging opinions - it calls them 'lies'; it puts itself 'above' the real lives of human beings, demanding, in a way characteristic of all totalitarian ideologies, the right to rebuild the world from the height of 'what it should be', i.e. in accordance with its own 'invincible' precepts. It refuses to recognize the many ideas, actions, feelings, laws, institutions, racial features which separate one nation (culture, civilization) from another... The reason of ordinary people trying to create a better and safer world for themselves and their children (which is reason with a small 'r' and not Reason 'written in capital letters') has very little in common with these ignorant dreams of domination."

>>1453017

posting favorite;

"The sciences of today are business enterprises run on business principles. Research in large institutes is not guided by Truth and Reason but by the most rewarding fashion, and the great minds of today increasingly turn to where the money is."

"In a war a totalitarian state has a free hand."

I like the part where phrenology is a legitimate science

>>1453111
really? cause i've read all his books and im pretty sure he's never used the word 'legitimate', ever.

My favorite

The withdrawal of philosophy into a "professional" shell of its own has had disastrous consequences. The younger generation of physicists, the Feynmans, the Schwingers, etc., may be very bright; they may be more intelligent than their predecessors, than Bohr, Einstein, Schrodinger, Boltzmann, Mach and so on. But they are uncivilized savages, they lack in philosophical depth -- and this is the fault of the very same idea of professionalism which you are now defending.

>>1453120

Google books is the best

There were a bunch more results but I didn't bother

" *
o

* So far Unitarian realism claiming to possess positive knowledge about Ultimate Reality has succeeded only by excluding large areas of phenomena or by declaring, without proof, that they could be reduced to basic theory, which, in this connection, means elementary particle physics. "

>>1453133
your a faggot, he didnt even mention phrenology.

"There is no coherent knowledge, i.e. no uniform comprehensive account of the world and the events in it. There is no comprehensive truth that goes beyond an enumeration of details, but there are many pieces of information, obtained in different ways from different sources and collected for the benefit of the curious. The best way of presenting such knowledge is the list - and the oldest scientific works were indeed lists of facts, parts, coincidences, problems in several specialized domains. "

>>1453147

No your a fagget

"Sussex University: the start of the Autumn Term, 1974. There was not a seat to be had in the biggest Arts lecture theatre on campus. Taut with anticipation, we waited expectantly and impatiently for the advertized event to begin. He was not on time—as usual. In fact rumour had it that he would not be appearing at all that illness (or was it just ennui? or perhaps a mistress?) had confined him to bed. But just as we began sadly to reconcile ourselves to the idea that there would be no performance that day at all, Paul Feyerabend burst through the door at the front of the packed hall. Rather pale, and supporting himself on a short metal crutch, he walked with a limp across to the blackboard. Removing his sweater he picked up the chalk and wrote down three questions one beneath the other: WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT KNOWLEDGE? WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT SCIENCE? WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT TRUTH? We were not going to be disappointed after all!..."

(1/2)

"During the following weeks of that term, and for the rest of his year as a visiting lecturer, Feyerabend demolished virtually every traditional academic boundary. He held no idea and no person sacred. With unprecedented energy and enthusiasm he discussed anything from Aristotle to the Azande. How does science differ from witchcraft? Does it provide the only rational way of cognitively organizing our experience? What should we do if the pursuit of truth cripples our intellects and stunts our individuality? Suddenly epistemology became an exhilarating area of investigation.

Feyerabend created spaces in which people could breathe again. He demanded of philosophers that they be receptive to ideas from the most disparate and apparently far-flung domains, and insisted that only in this way could they understand the processes whereby knowledge grows. His listeners were enthralled, and he held his huge audiences until, too ill and too exhausted to continue, he simply began repeating himself. But not before he had brought the house down by writing ARISTOTLE in three-foot high letters on the blackboard and then writing POPPER in tiny, virtually illegible letters beneath it..."

(2/2)

>>1453133

"hey, look at me, i read google books and think it gives me an accurate account of the authors work without actually committing the time and effort it takes to understand a given text."

>>1453163

great troll, or greatest troll?

>>1453165

I don't have to, all ways of knowing are equal and incommensurable

>>1453172
Explain.

>>1453173

Not a troll, but a brilliant man. Of all the people living or dead I could have dinner with, Feyerabend would be one of them. The man was a joy, not to mention an intellectual delight to read.

>>1453172

only within the context of a democratic society, foo

"Most scientists today are devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes "scientific progress" in many areas."

"It is evident, on the basis of our considerations, that this appearance of success cannot in the least be regarded as a sign of truth and correspondence with nature. Quite the contrary, suspicion arises that the absence of major difficulties is a result of the decrease of empirical content brought about by the elimination of alternatives, and of facts that can be discovered with their help. In other words, the suspicion arises that this alleged success is due to the fact that the theory, when extended beyond its starting point, was turned into rigid ideology. Such Ideology is "successful" not because it agrees so well with the facts; it is successful because no facts have been specified that could constitute a test, and because some such facts have been removed. Its "success" is entirely man-made. It was decided to stick to some ideas, come what may, and the result was, quite naturally, the survival of these ideas. If now the initial decision is forgotten, or made only implicitly, for example, if it becomes common law in physics, then the survival itself will seem to constitute independent support., it will reinforce the decision, or turn it into an explicate one, and in this way close the circle. This is how empirical "evidence" may be created by a procedure which quotes as its justification the very same evidence it has Produced."
wtf, bro

>>1453203
like, where the hell has this man been my whole life?

" My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is, rather, to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits. The best way to show this is to demonstrate the limits and even the irrationality of some rules which she, or he, is likely to regard as basic. In the case that induction (including induction by falsification) this means demonstrating how well the counterinductive procedure can be supported by argument. "

>>1453203
Things that don't get questioned or tested are often made out to be questioned or tested.

>>1453218

" *
o

* The material which a scientist actually has at his disposal, his laws, his experimental results, his mathematical techniques, his epistemological prejudices, his attitude towards the absurd consequences of the theories which he accepts, is indeterminate in many ways, ambiguous, and never fully separated from the historical background. This material is always contaminated by principles which he does not know and which, if known, would be extremely hard to test. "

>>1453133
wow, your fucking retarded. way to take the quote out of context

The main idea behind feyerabend's pluralism is that the progress of science relies on drawing knowledge from all domains of life. the ramblings of madmen like Tesla, or mysticism, with pythogoras and his 'mystical, irrational,' hermetic writings on heliocentricism, and how those hermetic writings influenced copernicus and newton; the kaballah's influence on mathematics.The herbal lore of witch doctors and their contribution to modern medicine. The zoology of primitive man greatly improved the ignorant list of modern scientific zoology. Hebrew astrology and its influence on modern celestial mechanics is another big one. Psychedelics influence on biology (francis crick and narby, anyone?)

by restricting knowledge to knowledge divined by one method, you live in a box that may or may not be that usefull (especially if you never use different methods, you'll never know!)- by implying that method is the only way of knowing amongst a field of ways, it turns into a political ideologue for thought control.

that being said; kindly go fuck yourself,

>>1452982
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vXNJCL1M8YmX8PR4k

>>1452995
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v4YdOnGjIhorxiRNk

>>1453002
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v0g2Nx03GspVC5oMG

>>1453011
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v4CgzYqegPD0CYWjx

>>1454473

You're batting with the big boys now, son.

http://vocaroo.com/?media=vg0GjBSb3tk6IAsCj

>>1453017
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vB3wEuBeHstJiQcst

>>1453023
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v5IdCoKIGJwHVUPhp

>>1453029
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vwZUdCodYPcF4HVGe

>>1453039
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v6yWLLKVQIvzpnZ06

this guy gets brought up every three months

He goes well with Deleuze as part of the 'most butt-fucking-ugly philosophers of the 20th century'

>>1453057
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vE4tCWWqLtRWSDFqQ

>>1453070
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vL4IROO80WscXbdVy

>>1453077
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vFMYVHMww1xeMT0WO

>>1453092
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vUwixqW3NoMslxOeW

>>1453108
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vbYpLAwjGp4m2E69c

>>1453126
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vDTiIeAiJUUfyc7CU

>>1453137
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v2ZhuXI50rLpzTsAY

>>1453154
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vLA480c1eTqIbEC1K

>>1453158
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vjcnlAlGLqncVTU43

>>1453161
>>1453163
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vT7fisPOJ3MduIpx8

>>1453190
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vRRvuIO22Yik6Oh0Z

>>1453203
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vJmWipacpzE6dmLUJ
(always that last goddamn word...)

>>1453218
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vV3wkNmyvDIcZfQ0g

>>1453223
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vV3wkNmyvDIcZfQ0g
(Say this shit three times fast. goddamn...)

>>1453889
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vszyYMCQPsJ4gApGL

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5514176914063562445#

>>1453889
pwned

no.

>>1454473
>>1454484
>>1454501
>>1454517
>>1454547

you are awesome

>>1454951
what he said- tell me you do audiobooks

I am a scientist and I think Feyerabend focuses too much on methodology of science. I listen to his criticisms and I don't think I've seen them played out very much

Mind you I've only read Against Method which is what the book was about so herp a der
p

and:
>>1453190
>the flood of inane papers that now constitutes
... I spend my days reading papers and a lot of good comes from it. just saying.

>>1455092

i'm a scientist, and i think your opinions are worth dick

>>1454968
>>1454951
Thankee kindly. I fool around on Librivox some and I like vocaroo threads. But I have this horrible habit of doing long windy stuff nobody wants to hear. SCRIPTS AND IDEAS MOST WELCOME! Also, there is a Sexy Voice class on University of reddit as of today? (PS Duke is still the vocaroo master)

>>1456372

>i like doing long winded shit nobody wants to hear

"At this point an "empirical" theory of the kind described becomes almost indistinguishable from a second-rate myth. In order to realize this, we need only consider a myth such as the myth of witchcraft and of demonic possession that was developed by the Roman Catholic theologians and that dominated 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century thought on the European continent. This myth is a complex explanatory system that contains numerous auxiliary hypotheses designed to cover special cases, so it easily achieves a high degree of confirmation on the basis of observation. It has been taught for a long time; its content is enforced by fear, prejudice, and ignorance, as well as by a jealous and cruel priesthood. Its ideas penetrate the most common idiom, infect all modes of thinking and many decisions which mean a great deal in human life. It provides models for the explanation of a conceivable event - Conceivable, that is, for those who have accepted it. This being the case, its key terms will be fixed in an unambiguous manner and the idea (which may have led to such a procedure in the first place) that they are copies of unchanging entities and that change of meaning, if it should happen, is due to human mistake - This idea will now be very plausible...(1/2)

>>1457180
'...Such plausibility reinforces all the manoeuvres which are used for the preservation of the myth (elimination of opponents included). The Conceptual apparatus of the theory and the emotions connected with its application, having penetrated all means of communication, all actions, and indeed the whole life of the community, now guarantees the success of methods such as transcendental deduction, analysis of usage, phenomenological analysis - which are means for further solidifying the myth... At the same time it is evident that all contact with the world is lost and the stability achieved, the semblance of absolute truth is nothing but absolute conformism. For how can we possibly test, or improve upon the truth of a theory if it is built in such a manner then any conceivable event can be described, and explained, in terms of its principles? The only way of investigating such all-embracing principles would be to compare them with a different set of equally all embracing principles- but this procedure has been excluded from the very beginning."


Get on it

>>1456372
bro, i'd totally paypall you some cash if you made an audiobook out of feyerabends against method.

>>1457189

im not even fucking around. show me some of the shit you've done on librivox and i just may consider throwing some money your way for this shit.

>>1457182
nice

the theory of the invisible hand and economics theory in general come to mind as a modern-day equivalent

>>1457182
Faggy.

Sage.

>>1457180
>>1457182
Just woke up. Here have this - (would be better if i had some coffee.)

http://vocaroo.com/?media=vxTd7l1nAALVtC2S0

>>1457189
>>1457209
!!! You're offering me money and resume experience? SOLD. We can talk price later. I have audacity and stuff ready to go. Might upgrade my mic for a large project, depending on size of book. Do you have a copy to email me, or should I go raid the college library?

mactoplac@gmail.com

Current (very old) best piece: http://soundcloud.com/stoferin/spacewizzards Click around in the account for more silly stuff and poetry.

>>1457237
Totally not faggy. I am reminded of construction work. The boss says "Do X by doing Y." The hired hand thinks about it and says "What if I did X by doing Z?" The boss says "FUCK YOU I"M THE BOSS."

Now you just need to figure out if the hired hand's plan was actually better or not.

shameless self bump

>>1457209
>>1457189
Shitty pdf of the book has been located. Currently rotating a few hundred pages one at a time.

>>1457189
>>1457209
Acceptable pdf of Against Method has been found.

>>1457711

heres the thing, i'd prefer if it was of the latest 4th edition that was just released this past 2010- pic related - if you could send me the link were you found the pdf that'd be awesome because i've never found one and idk if its acceptable compared to the hardcopies i have of it. i'm trying to listen to your soundcloud stuff but its not working- i'll email you the details about the payment and stuff later today

>>1457209
>>1457189
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vA8DBnboEpbVHRDxC
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vx49O8oT0HaL1zyjs

Here is an unedited reading of the preface to Against Method.

http://www.heroturko.org/ebooks/636232-against-method.html

THIRD EDITION

Click the hotfile or depostiefiles links. Unzip with winrar or 7zip.

>>1457753
Here is that story on zshare.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/852782703f50bfec/

Gotta go to work now, but feel free to continue discussion via email.

I am also a Feyerabend fan despite not agreeing with him much. He had a very healthy influence on philosophy, and compared to the Postmodern wankers torn apart by Sokal and Bricmont in 'Fashionable Nonsense,' he actually knew quite a bit about physics, especially quantum theory. He also delivered my favorite quote, from Farewell to Reason"
"All religions are good 'in principle' - but unfortunately this abstract Good has only rarely prevented their practitioners from behaving like bastards. "

>>1457800

i literally had my e-mail all written out and my computer shut off- talk about raging. i'll have to rewrite it later. Just so you know i'm not ditchin on you or anything. I saved your address just in case the thread 404's and if it does soon ima ask for all the audiofiles you've done one last time over email.

peace

bump

>>1458027
Message recieved.