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Feyerabend, Paul K

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Austrian-born US philosopher of science, who rejected the attempt by certain philosophers (such as Karl Popper ) to find a methodology applicable to all scientific research. His works include Against Method (1975). Feyerabend argues that successive theories that apparently concern the same subject (for instance the motion of the planets) cannot in principle be subjected to any comparison that would aim at finding the truer explanation. According to this notion of incommensurability, there is no neutral or objective standpoint, and therefore no rational and objective way in which one particular theory can be chosen over another. Instead, scientific progress is claimed to be the result of a range of sociological factors working to promote politically convenient notions of how nature operates. In the best-selling Against Method , he applied an anarchic approach to the study of knowledge and espoused practices, such as the Haitian cult of voodoo, that flew in the face of conventional…
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Full text Article Feyerabend, Paul (1924-1994)

From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
Born in Austria, Feyerabend initially studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and then at the London School of Economics under Karl Popper . He made an important, albeit iconoclastic, contribution to the philosophy of science. He initially followed Popper's philosophical outlook, but soon…
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Full text Article Paul K Feyerabend (1924–1994)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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Full text Article Methods

From Key Concepts in Sports Studies
Methods are the systematic approaches and techniques employed in compiling a research data set, and how these approaches are operationalised in the field throughout the research process. 'Methodology' - effectively the theory of method - is a central subject area within the philosophy of knowledge…
| 2,893 words
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Full text Article COMMUNICATION THEORY

From Elsevier's Dictionary of Psychological Theories
In broad terms, communication refers to the transmission of something from one location to another where the “thing” that is transmitted may be a message, a signal, a meaning, and so on, where both the transmitter and the receiver must share a common code so that the meaning of the information…
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Full text Article SCIENTIFIC METHOD

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American biologist The field was essentially stuck, but following the well known scientific approach known as “sheer blind luck,” we stumbled upon the protein that is the answer to the question: do water channels exist? Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes in 2003 Nobel lecture for award received in…
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Full text Article REASONING

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer Reason is the newest and rarest thing in human life, the most delicate child of human history. A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Notes from a Secret Journal Chapter 10 (p. 91 ) St. Martin's Press. New York New York USA . 1989. Scottish mathem... …
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Full text Article SCIENCE, HISTORY OF

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English physicist …the history of science has proved that fundamental research is the lifeblood of individual progress and that the ideas which lead to spectacular advances spring from it. In Holmstrom, J. Edwin Records and Research in Engineering and Industrial Science Chapter One (p. 7 ) Chapman…
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Full text Article SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American author and biochemist Science with all its faults has brought education and the arts to more people – a larger percentage – than has ever existed before science. In that respect it is science that is the great humanizer. And, if we are going to solve the problems that science has brought…
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Full text Article IDEA

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer I'd sooner exchange ideas with the birds on earth than learn to carry on intergalactic communications with some obscure race of humanoids on a satellite planet from the world of Betelgeuse. Desert Solitaire The First Morning (p. 7 ) Ballantine Books. New…
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Full text Article FACT

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
When facts have been gathered, sorted, and piled, the mound is an observatory. Frost and Fire (Volume 2 ) Chapter XXVIII (p. 1 ) Edmonston & Douglas. Edinburgh Scotland . 1865. English clergyman and author From dreams I proceed to facts. …
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