It would probably be tedious to respond to every single quote, but I think I will respond to one specific example which will hopfully be illuminating.
On Nov 13, 2007 3:15 PM, Ian Kluge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > (1) Feyerabend: " "All methodologies have their limitations and the only > 'rule' that survives is 'anything goes.'" (Against Method 5) > > This speaks for itself: "anything goes." So I would point out that if this were meant plainly and literally as an unqualified statement, it wouldn't have been in quotes. But to make the point really clear, here is a quotation from: http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/1/63.pdf 3 FEYERABEND AND RELATIVISM In their declared opposition to relativism, Long (1990a 656,1993 230-1) and Beretta (1991 502-3) often engage in what I would call 'Feyerabend bashing* Two excerpts from their respective work make this point well Feyerabend , for example, argues that scientific beliefs are different from, not superior to, those of voodoo, magic, or religion, which are held with no less certainty by their believers Feyerabend's famous conclusion, of course, was There is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development It is the principle anything goes (Long 1993 231) even the most extreme relativists may not allow that absolutely 'anything goes' This slogan has been commonly associated with Feyerabend "There is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development It is the principle anything goes' and the trouble with 'anything goes' is that "everything stays' (Beretta 1991 502) I find repetition of this quotation in the context of a defense of rational theones of science tedious and I fear that too many authors have fallen into the trap of taking on a strawman, an extreme case presented by an author whose intention is not to elaborate a principle for research, but to provoke Indeed, in the preface to the second edition of Against Method (1987a), Feyerabend has the following to say lmre Lakatos loved to embarrass serious opponent!) with jokes and irony and so I, too, occasionally wrote in an ironical vein An example is the end of Chapter 1 anything goes' is not a principle' I hold—I do not think that "principles' can be used and fruitfully discussed outside the concrete research situation they are supposed to affect—but the terrified exclamation of the rationalist who takes a closer look at history Reading the many thorough, senous, longwinded and thoroughly misguided criticisms I have received after publication of the first English edition I often recalled my exchanges with lmre, how we would both have laughed had we been able to read these effusions together (Feverabend 1987a vn) The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
