Items marked ■ are required readings

Week 1 (20 Feb):

• Watch the interview with Feyerabend online (in German).
• Hoyningen-Huene, P. (2000). Paul K. Feyerabend: an obituary. In J. Preston, G. Munévar, & D. Lamb (Eds.), The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend (pp. 3–15). New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Orignially published in German as: Hoyningen-Huene, P. (1997). Paul K. Feyerabend. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 28(1), 1–18.)

Week 2 (27 Feb):

• Feyerabend, P. (2010). Against Method (forth. ed.). London; New York: Verso. (Introduction & Chapter 1).

– Thornton, Stephen, “Karl Popper“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
– Popper explaining critical rationalism (in German).
– Gattei, S. (2009). Introduction: Critical Rationalism. In S. Gattei. Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledge.

Week 3 (06 Mar):

• SFS, Preface
• SFS, I.1 Against Method Revisited

– Kuhn, T. S. (1970). Reflections on my Critics. In I. Lakatos & A. Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Volume 4: Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
– Feyerabend, P. K. (1976). On the Critique of Scientific Reason. In C. Howson (Ed.), Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences: The Critical Background to Modern Science 1800-1905 (pp. 309–339). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Week 4 (13 Mar):

• SFS, I.2 Reason & Practice
• SFS, I.3 On the Cosmological Criticism of Standards

Week 5 (20 Mar):

• SFS I.4 Anything Goes
• SFS I.5 The Copernican Revolution

– Bowler, P. J., & Morus, I. R. (2005). Chapter 2: The Scientific Revolution. In Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey (pp. 23–54). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
– Zahar, E., & Lakatos, I. (1978). Why did Copernicus’s research programme supersede Ptolemy’s? In G. Currie, I. Lakatos, & J. Worrall (Eds.), The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers (Vol. 1, pp. 168–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Week 6 (27 Mar):

• SFS, I.7 Incommensurability

– Oberheim, Eric and Hoyningen-Huene, Paul. The Incommensurability of Scientific Theories. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

Easter Break

Week 7 (10 Apr):

• SFS II.1 Two Questions
• SFS II.2 The Prevalence of Science is a Threat to Democracy
• SFS II.3 The Spectre of Relativism
  PDF

Week 8 (17 Apr):

• SFS II.4 Democratic Judgement Overrules Truth and Expert Opinion
• SFS II.5 Expert Opinions Often Prejudiced …
• SFS II.6 The Strange Case of Astrology
  PDF

– Lloyd, E. A. (1997). Feyerabend , Mill, and Pluralism. Philosophy of Science, 64, 396–407.
– Mill, J. S. (1859/2003). On Liberty. (D. Bromwich & G. Kateb, Eds.). New Haven; London: Yale University Press. (Chapter IV: Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual)

Week 9 (24 Apr):

• SFS II.7 Layman can and Must Supervise Science
• SFS II.8 Arguments from Methodology…
• SFS II.9 Nor is Science Preferable Because of its Results
• SFS II.10 Science is one Ideology Among Others…
  PDF

No session on May 1st

Week 10 (08 May): Feyerabend’s Defense of Astrology

• Kidd, I. J. (2016). Why did Feyerabend Defend Astrology? Integrity, Virtue, and the Authority of Science. Social Epistemology, 30(4).

– Pigliucci, M. (2016). Was Feyerabend Right in Defending Astrology? A Commentary on Kidd. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 5(5), 1–6.

Week 11 (15 May): Feyerabend’s Relativism in SFS

• Kusch, M. (2016). Relativism in Feyerabend’s later writings. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 57, 106–113.

– Heller, L. (2016). Between relativism and pluralism: Philosophical and political relativism in Feyerabend’s late work. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 57, 96–105.
– Martin Kusch on youtube about relativism.

Week 12 (22 May):  Feyerabend’s Pluralism and its Relationship to Popper’s Critical Rationalism

• Feyerabend, P. (2010). Against Method (forth ed.). London; New York: Verso. Chapter 3.
• Bschir, K. (2015). Feyerabend and Popper on Theory Proliferation and Anomaly Import: On the Compatibility of Theoretical Pluralism and Critical Rationalism. HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, 5(1), 24–55.

– Bschir, K. (2015). Feyerabend and Popper on Theory Proliferation and Anomaly Import: A Peace Proposal. Talk at the symposium “Feyerabend’s Theoretical Pluralism vs. Popper’s Critical Rationalism Continuities and Ruptures“, CLMPS 2015, Helsinki, August 2015. Slides.
– Worrall, J. (1991). Feyerabend and the Facts. In M. Gonzalo (Ed.), Beyond Reason. Essays on the Philosophy of Paul Feyerabend (pp. 329–353). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
– Collodel, M. (2016). Was Feyerabend a Popperian? Methodological issues in the History of the Philosophy of Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 57, 27–56.

Week 13 (29 May): Wrap-up session: Research Funding in a Free Society

• Read the International Appeal for the Protection of Academic Independence.

– Matthias Daum. Geist gehorcht Geld. DIE ZEIT. Februar 2013.
– Ursula Pia Jauch und Markus Müller. Professoren protestieren gegen Sponsoring von Unis. DIE ZEIT. Februar 2013.
– Marcel Hänggi. Zur Transparenz gezwungen. Die Wochenzeitung. Mai 2013.
– Matthias Daum. Die gekaufte Uni. DIE ZEIT. November 2013.
– Karim Bschir. Unabhängige Forschung ist eine Illusion. NZZ am Sonntag. August 2017.