Paul Feyerabend
(1924-1994)
– Education for a Free Society –
Workshop
19th of March 2021
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow/ Scotland
Organisers: Dr Karsten Kenklies (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow/ Scotland) & Dr Sebastian Engelmann (University of Tübingen, Germany)
He was the enfant terrible of Philosophy, or more specific: of the Philosophy of Science: Paul Feyerabend. Based on his intimate knowledge of the history of the sciences and of the contemporary state of especially physics, his background in philosophy, and his genuine interest in the arts, Feyerabend never missed an opportunity to challenge prevalent views on the sciences and philosophy. Feyerabend’s broad interest in cultural affairs included, of course, questions of education, of the ways people are educated (or: indoctrinated) into scientific beliefs and worldviews. He famously argued that education is only then true education if its teaching includes a backdoor through which one is able to leave exactly those teachings. He always was appalled by the way, in which sciences and philosophy are taught as truths, as facts rather than as imperfect, questionable theories or, even better, as practices of searching and philosophizing. And he was appalled by the closed-mindedness of a scientifically grounded and philosophically defended education system, which seemed to exclude or belittle different ways of knowing, different ways of living.
In preparation for the celebration of his centennial birthday in 2024, we are inviting everyone to a workshop that will explore the different ways in which Feyerabend’s thinking can be related to educational matters. The Call for Papers can be found here.