The examples of Copernicus, the atomic theory, Voodoo, Chinese medicine show that even the most advanced and the apparently most secure theory is not safe, that it can be modified or entirely overthrown into the dustbin of history. This is how the knowledge of today may become the fairy-tale of tomorrow and how the most laughable myth may eventually turn into the most solid piece of science.
Pluralism of theories and metaphysical views is not only important for methodology, it is also an essential part of a humanitarian outlook. Progressive educators have always tried to develop the individuality of their pupils and to bring to fruition the particular, and sometimes quite unique, talents and beliefs that a child possesses. Such an education, however, has very often seemed to be a futile exercise in day-dreaming. For is it not necessary to prepare the young for life as it actually is? Does this mean that they must learn one particular set of views to the exclusion of everything else? And, if a trace of their imagination is still to remain, will it not find its proper application in the arts or in a thin domain of dreams that has but little to do with the world we live in? Will this procedure not finally lead to a split between a hated reality and welcome fantasies, science and the arts, careful description and unrestrained self-expression? The argument for proliferation shows that this need not happen. It is possible to retain what one might call the freedom of artistic creation and to use it to the full, not just as a road of escape but as a necessary means for discovering and perhaps even changing the features of the world we live in. This coincidence of the part (individual man) with the whole (the world we live in), of the purely subjective and arbitrary with the objective and lawful, is one of the most important arguments in favour of a pluralistic methodology.
[Paul Feyerabend, Against Method]
Pluralism of theories and metaphysical views is not only important for methodology, it is also an essential part of a humanitarian outlook. Progressive educators have always tried to develop the individuality of their pupils and to bring to fruition the particular, and sometimes quite unique, talents and beliefs that a child possesses. Such an education, however, has very often seemed to be a futile exercise in day-dreaming. For is it not necessary to prepare the young for life as it actually is? Does this mean that they must learn one particular set of views to the exclusion of everything else? And, if a trace of their imagination is still to remain, will it not find its proper application in the arts or in a thin domain of dreams that has but little to do with the world we live in? Will this procedure not finally lead to a split between a hated reality and welcome fantasies, science and the arts, careful description and unrestrained self-expression? The argument for proliferation shows that this need not happen. It is possible to retain what one might call the freedom of artistic creation and to use it to the full, not just as a road of escape but as a necessary means for discovering and perhaps even changing the features of the world we live in. This coincidence of the part (individual man) with the whole (the world we live in), of the purely subjective and arbitrary with the objective and lawful, is one of the most important arguments in favour of a pluralistic methodology.
[Paul Feyerabend, Against Method]
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