This book argues that the traditional image of Feyerabend is erroneous
and that, contrary to common belief, he was a great admirer of science.
It shows how Feyerabend presented a vision of science that represented
how science really works. Besides giving a theoretical framework based
on Feyerabend´s philosophy of science, the book offers criteria that can
help readers to evaluate and understand research reported in important
international science education journals, with respect to Feyerabend's
epistemological anarchism. The book includes an evaluation of general
chemistry and physics textbooks.
Most science curricula and textbooks provide the following advice to
students: Do not allow theories in contradiction with observations, and
all scientific theories must be formulated inductively based on
experimental facts. Feyerabend questioned this widely prevalent premise
of science education in most parts of the world, and in contrast gave
the following advice: Scientists can accept a hypothesis despite
experimental evidence to the contrary and scientific theories are not
always consistent with all the experimental data. No wonder Feyerabend
became a controversial philosopher and was considered to be against
rationalism and anti-science. Recent research in philosophy of science,
however, has shown that most of Feyerabend´s philosophical ideas are in
agreement with recent trends in the 21st century. Of the 120
articles from science education journals, evaluated in this book only 9%
recognized that Feyerabend was presenting a plurality of perspectives
based on how science really works. Furthermore, it has been shown that
Feyerabend could even be considered as a perspectival realist. Among
other aspects, Feyerabend emphasized that in order to look for
breakthroughs in science one does not have to be complacent about the
truth of the theories but rather has to look for opportunities to "break
rules" or "violate categories."
Mansoor Niaz carefully analyses references to Feyerabend in the
literature and displays the importance of Feyerabend's philosophy in
analyzing, historical episodes. Niaz shows through this remarkable book
a deep understanding to the essence of science. - Calvin Kalman,
Concordia University, Canada
In this book Mansoor Niaz explores the antecedents, context and
features of Feyerabend's work and offers a more-nuanced understanding,
then reviews and considers its reception in the science education and
philosophy of science literature. This is a valuable contribution to
scholarship about Feyerabend, with the potential to inform further
research as well as science education practice.- David Geelan, Griffith
University, Australia
