Late Feyerabend on materialism, mysticism, and religion.

Paul Feyerabend's later work increasingly engaged with religion and mysticism, arguing that scientific materialism fails to satisfy fundamental human needs for mystery, reverence, and love. These recommendations go beyond his well-known theoretical pluralism, offering positive accounts of what religious orientations provide that monistic science cannot. The author contends that these religious themes were integral to Feyerabend's broader philosophical project and can serve as effective counterarguments to contemporary calls for science-based secularism from philosophers of science.

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Abstract

Feyerabend's interests in religion and mysticism grew through his career. In his later writings, Feyerabend's numerous critiques of scientific materialism are often accompanied by purported advantages of religious orientations and temperaments. These recommendations do not simply follow from his tolerant theoretical pluralism; they are more positive attempts to articulate distinctive aspects of human life satisfied by religion, but not by scientific materialism. Elevating the human need for mystery, reverence, and love, he contrasts these goods with the deliverances of monistic conceptions of science and reason. I bring attention to some of the common themes in these remarks to argue that they were integral with other parts of his philosophical project and that they could serve as helpful rejoinders to contemporary exhortations to science-based secularism from philosophers of science.