Misunderstanding John Stuart Mill on science: Paul Feyerabend`s bad influence
Version 2 2024-06-17, 03:59Version 2 2024-06-17, 03:59
Version 1 2014-10-27, 16:27Version 1 2014-10-27, 16:27
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-17, 03:59authored byS Jacobs
Feyerabend, 1975; Feyerabend, 1981 and Feyerabend, 1987 takes J. S. Mill’s On Liberty to support the proliferation of theories in science and to emphasize the fallibility of scientific knowledge. On Liberty, according to Feyerabend, contradicts and overthrows Mill’s major study of science, A System of Logic. Staley (1999) reads the 2 works of Mill as giving complementary accounts of science. The present author rejects these interpretations of Mill, arguing that A System of Logic and On Liberty are mutually compatible since On Liberty concerns the nature of non-scientific knowledge and the methods that Mill believes are appropriate to expanding and assessing that knowledge.