Against Method

Against Method is the 1975 book by Paul Feyerabend that launched epistemological anarchism into mainstream philosophy of science. Its central claim is methodological pluralism: no single set of rules governs scientific progress, and the history of science is a history of rule-breaking, propaganda, and conceptual innovation rather than patient hypothesis-testing. The book's structure mirrors its thesis — it is deliberately unsystematic, using historical case studies to show that what philosophers call 'the scientific method' is a retrospective fiction imposed on a messier, more creative process. The book remains a key text in philosophy of science and a provocation to anyone who believes that rational inquiry requires universal norms.