Farewell to Reason offers a vigorous challenge to the scientific rationalism that underlies Western ideals of "progress" and "development," whose damaging social and ecological consequences are now widely recognized.
For all their variety in theme and occasion, the essays in this book share a consistent philosophical purpose. Whether discussing Greek art and thought, vindicating the church's battle with Galileo, exploring the development of quantum physics or exposing the dogmatism of Karl Popper, Feyerabend defends a relativist and historicist notion of the sciences. The appeal to reason, he insists, is empty, and must be replaced by a notion of science that subordinates it to the needs of citizens and communities.
Provocative, polemical and rigorously argued, Farewell to Reason will infuriate Feyerabend's critics and delight his many admirers.
- ISBN10 0860911845
- ISBN13 9780860911845
- Publish Date 1 November 1987
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 April 1995
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Verso Books
- Edition Illustrated edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 362
- Language English