Paul K. Feyerabend: Introduction to the Philosophy of Nature (Edition of an unpublished book-manuscript)

While writing his opus magnum, Against Method (1975), Feyerabend also worked on a book with the working title Einführung in die Naturphilosophie (An Introduction to the Philosophy of Nature). The manuscripts are essential for understanding Feyerabend s Philosophy of Nature as well as his understanding of Ancient Philosophy. Feyerabend completed an initial typed version in 1971, and he finished a second longer version in 1976. Both versions were heavily edited by hand, resulting in two very different manuscripts. The longer version is about 300 pages, and is the only one of a planned three volumes on the development of the Philosophy of Nature from its inception through to the present. The investigation is primarily focused on the development of human understanding of the natural world from the earliest known cave drawings through Homer s aggregate universe to the substance universe of the Pre-Socratics. The further developments from Plato and Aristotle to the modern scientific worldview were to be treated in the second two volumes. They are discussed in the introduction and a long final chapter added to the 1976 version. The investigation distinguishes between three forms of worldviews (Mythos, Philosophy and Science) with the aim of reconstructing and comparing their structures and functions. In addition to Philosophy and History of Science texts, he draws on a wide range of sources and images such as Prehistory, Early History, Ethnology and Art History.