Two volumes of collected philosophical papers were edited by Feyerabend himself and appeared in 1981; he published another collection in 1987. In 1999, five years after his demise, John Preston edited a third volume of his collected papers, and Bert Terpstra saw through the press Feyerabend's last (unfinished) manuscript, to which he attached a number of previously published essays dealing with its main themes. These books will be referred to as follows:
- PP1
Realism, Rationalism and Scientific Method: Philosophical Papers, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
- PP2
Problems of Empiricism: Philosophical Papers, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1981.
- FR
Farewell to Reason, London: Verso/New Left Books, 1987.
- PP3
Knowledge, Science and Relativism: Philosophical Papers, vol. 3, edited by John M. Preston, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- CA
The Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being, edited by Bert Terpstra, Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
“On the Quantum-Theory of Measurement”, in Stephan Körner and Maurice H. L. Pryce (eds.), Observation and Interpretation: A Symposium of Philosophers and Physicists, New York: Academic Press Inc., Publishers, and London: Butterworths Scientific Publications, 1957, pp. 121–130; reprinted in PP1, Part 2, Ch. 13 (pp. 207–218). A preliminary version of this paper appeared as “Zur Quantentheorie der Messung”, Zeitschrift für Physik, vol. 148, no. 5 (October 1957), pp. 551–559.
“An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, vol. 58 (1957–1958), pp. 143–170; reprinted in PP1, Part 1, Ch. 2 (pp. 17–36).
“Reichenbach's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics”, Philosophical Studies, vol. 9, no. 4 (June 1958), pp. 47–59; reprinted in PP1, Part 2, Ch. 15 (pp. 236–246).
“On the Interpretation of Scientific Theories”, in Atti del XII Congresso internazionale di filosofia: Venezia, 12–18 settembre 1958, vol. V: Logica, gnoseologia, filosofia della scienza, filosofia del linguaggio, Florence: G. C. Sansoni, 1960, pp. 151–169; reprinted in PP1, Part 1, Ch. 3 (pp. 37–43).
“Das Problem der Existenz theoretischer Entitäten”, in Ernst Topitsch (ed.), Probleme der Wissenschaftstheorie: Festschrift für Victor Kraft, Vienna: Springer, 1960, pp. 35–72; English translation by Daniel Sirtes and Eric Oberheim, “The Problem of the Existence of Theoretical Entities”, in PP3, Ch. 1 (pp. 16–49).
“Professor Bohm's Philosophy of Nature” (review of David Bohm, Causality and Chance in Modern Physics, Foreword by Louis de Broglie, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, and Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1957), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 10, no. 40 (February 1960), pp. 321–338; reprinted in PP1, Part 2, Ch. 14 (pp. 219–235).
“On a Recent Critique of Complementarity: Part I”, Philosophy of Science, vol. 35, no. 4 (December 1968), pp. 309–331, and “On a Recent Critique of Complementarity: Part II”, Philosophy of Science, vol. 36, no. 1 (March 1969), pp. 82–105; reprinted together in PP1, Part 2, Ch. 16, under the title “Niels Bohr's world view” (pp. 247–297).
“Zahar on Mach, Einstein and Modern Science”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 31, no. 3 (September 1980), pp. 273–282; reprinted in PP2, Ch. 6, under the title “Mach, Einstein and the Popperians” (pp. 247–297).
“Realism and the Bohr-Rosenfeld Condition”, Appendix (1981) to “Consolations for the Specialist”, in PP2, Ch. 8 (pp. 162–167).
“Mach's Theory of Research and Its Relation to Einstein”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 15, no. 1 (March 1984), pp. 1–22; reprinted in FR, Ch. 7 (pp. 192–218).
“Quantum Theory and Our View of the World”, Stroom. Mededelingenblad Faculteit Natuur-en Sterrenkunde, vol. 6, no. 28 (1992), pp. 19–24; reprinted in CA, Part 2, Ch. 3 (pp. 161–177).
Related works, still absent from this series, are Feyerabend's Ph. D. dissertation: Zur Theorie der Basissätze, University of Vienna, 1951 (unpublished), as well as two very short entries on Niels Bohr and Ernst Mach that appeared posthumously in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, edited by Ted Honderich and published by Oxford University Press in 1995 (on pp. 98 and 516, respectively) and republished in a new edition in 2005 (see pp. 102 and 549, respectively).
For a complete list of Feyerabend's works, see the constantly updated online chronological and annotated bibliographies by Matteo Collodel at www.collodel.org/feyerabend/.
The papers collected in the present volume vary considerably in size, purpose and style: their features reflect the time in which they were written and the context in which they were originally inserted. For these reasons, they have been organized into three sections: (1) original papers and book chapters, (2) reviews and comments in conference proceedings, and (3) encyclopedia entries. Within each section, works follow a chronological order. They are here reprinted as they originally appeared. Editorial interventions were limited to tacit correction of typographical errors, as well as to slight modifications of punctuation, for reasons of uniformity. A few bibliographical references, mainly to the republication of Feyerabend's works, as well as a few other editorial interventions, in the body of the texts or in the footnotes, are clearly marked by curly brackets (the only exception being Chapter 15, where Feyerabend himself used curly brackets in the body of the text).
In order to facilitate references to the original publications, page numbers there are given here within square brackets in bold superscript fonts. All notes appear as footnotes. Endnotes turned into footnotes include added references to their original pagination – within square brackets, in bold superscript fonts.
Sources of the Works Collected in the Present Volume
1. “Der Begriff der Verständlichkeit in der modernen Physik”, in Veröffentlichungen des Österreichischen College, Vienna: Österreichischen College, 1948, pp. 6–10.
2. “Physik und Ontologie”, Wissenschaft und Weltbild: Monatsschrift für alle Gebiete der Forschung, vol. 7, nos. 11–12 (November–December 1954), pp. 464–476.
3. “Determinismus und Quantenmechanik”, Wiener Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Psychologie, Pädagogik, vol. 5, no. 2 (1954), pp. 89–111.
4. “Eine Bemerkung zum Neumannschen Beweis”, Zeitschrift für Physik, vol. 145, no. 4 (August 1956), 421–423.
5. “Complementarity”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, vol. 32 (1958), 75–104.
6. “Niels Bohr's Interpretation of the Quantum Theory”, in Herbert Feigl and Grover Maxwell (eds.), Current Issues in the Philosophy of Science: Symposia of Scientists and Philosophers, Proceedings of Section L of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1959, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961, pp. 371–390.
The paper is followed by Feyerabend's “Rejoinder to Hanson”, ibid., pp. 398–400.
7. “Problems of Microphysics”, in Robert G. Colodny (ed.), Frontiers of Science and Philosophy (University of Pittsburgh Series in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 1), Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962, pp. 189–283.
A preliminary (almost final) Polish translation appeared as “O Interpretacij Relacyj Nieokreslonosci [On the Interpretation of the Uncertainty Relations]”, Studia Filozoficzne, vol. 19, no. 4 (1960), pp. 21–78.
This paper was partially (§§4–11) reprinted, in a slightly altered version, in PP1, Ch. 17, under the title “Hidden Variables and the Argument of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen” (pp. 298–342).
8. “Über konservative Züge in den Wissenschaften, insbesondere in der Quantentheorie, und ihre Beseitigung”, in Club Voltaire: Jahrbuch für kritische Aufklärung, vol. 1, edited by Gerhard Szczesny, Munich: Szczesny Verlag, 1963, pp. 280–293.
9. Problems of Microphysics, The Voice of America. Forum Philosophy of Science Series, no. 17, Washington: U. S. Information Agency, 1964.
10. “Eigenart und Wandlungen physikalischer Erkenntnis”, Physikalische Blätter, vol. 21, no. 5 (May 1965), pp. 197–203.
11. “Dialectical Materialism and the Quantum Theory”, Slavic Review, vol. 25, no. 3 (September 1966), pp. 414–417.
12. “Bemerkungen zur Verwendung nicht-klassischer Logiken in der Quantentheorie”, in Paul Weingartner (ed.), Deskription, Analytizität und Existenz: Forschungsgespräche des internationalen Forschungszentrums für Grundfragen der Wissenschaften Salzburg, drittes und viertes Forschungsgespräch, Salzburg-Munich: Anton Pustet, 1966, pp. 351–359.
13. “On the Possibility of a Perpetuum Mobile of the Second Kind”, in Paul K. Feyerabend and Grover Maxwell (eds.), Mind, Matter, and Method: Essays in Philosophy and Science in Honor of Herbert Feigl, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966, pp. 409–412.
14. “In Defence of Classical Physics”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 1, no. 1 (May 1970), pp. 59–85.
15. Review of Alfred Landé, Foundations of Quantum-Mechanics: A Study in Continuity and Symmetry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1955), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 7, no. 28 (February 1957), pp. 354–357.
16. “Discussions with Léon Rosenfeld and David Bohm (and others)”, excerpts from Stephen Körner and Maurice H. L. Pryce (eds.), Observation and Interpretation: A Symposium of Philosophers and Physicists, New York: Academic Press Inc., Publishers, and London: Butterworths Scientific Publications, 1957, pp. 48–57, 112–113, 138–147, and 182–186.
17. Review of John von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, translated by Robert T. Beyer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 8, no. 32 (February 1958), pp. 343–347.
18. Review of Hans Reichenbach, The Direction of Time (Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1956), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 9, no. 36 (February 1959), pp. 336–337.
19. “Professor Landé on the Reduction of the Wave Packet”, American Journal of Physics, vol. 28, no. 5 (May 1960), pp. 507–508.
20. “Comments on Grünbaum's ‘Law and Convention in Physical Theory’”, in Herbert Feigl and Grover Maxwell (eds.), Current Issues in the Philosophy of Science: Symposia of Scientists and Philosophers, Proceedings of Section L of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1959, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961, pp. 155–161.
21. “Comment on Hill's ‘Quantum Physics and Relativity Theory’”, ibid., pp. 441–443.
22. Review of Norwood R. Hanson, The Concept of the Positron: A Philosophical Analysis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963), The Philosophical Review, vol. 73, no. 2 (April 1964), pp. 264–266.
23. Review of Hans Reichenbach, Philosophic Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 17, no. 4 (February 1967), pp. 326–328.
24. “Naturphilosophie”, in Alwin Diemer and Ivo Frenzel (eds.), Das Fischer Lexikon: Enzyklopädie des Wissens, vol. 11: Philosophie, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Bücherei, 1958, pp. 203–227.
25. “Philosophical Problems of Quantum Theory” (1964), Philosophisches Archiv der Universität Konstanz, Paul Feyerabend Nachlaß (PF 11–12-3), 38 pages.
As with the next few chapters, this was meant to be an entry to The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Paul Edwards and published in 1967: see Footnote Chapter 12, footnote 1.
26. “Boltzmann, Ludwig”, in Paul Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, New York-London: Macmillan, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 334–337.
27. “Heisenberg, Werner”, ibid., vol. 3, pp. 466–467.
28. “Planck, Max”, ibid., vol. 6, pp. 312–314.
29. “Schrödinger, Erwin”, ibid., vol. 7, pp. 332–333.
