for a good time, call…

Paul Feyerabend.

It’s always a hoot to read Feyerabend. He makes me feel more alive, and more excited about thinking. It was probably Biagioli’s references that made me pull my heavily marked copies of Against Method and Farewell to Reason from the shelf over the past week or so.

Feyerabend has plenty of masterfully funny passages, but where I think he really excels is in the hilarious passing throwaway remark. Few are memorable enough to be worth typing here, but when you encounter them in context it’s hard not to chuckle all along the way.

But here’s a good serious remark, from page 12 of Against Method:

“…the world which we want to explore is a largely unknown entity. We must, therefore, keep our options open and we must not restrict ourselves in advance.”