Comments on Paul Feyerabend's Article entitled

"How to Defend Society Against Science."



John L. Waters



February 13, 2002



© Copyright 2002 by John L. Waters. All Rights

Reserved



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On page 57 Feyerabend states that science claims to be

exceptional "because  it has produced results."  This

phrase, however, is a gross oversimplification of what

science actually claims.  He goes after this dead

issue by introducing examples of results obtained by

other disciplines, and expects the reader to agree

that this argument nullifies the claim of science to

exceptional status.



One problem is that Feyerabend isn't presenting

honestly what the claim of science is.  Not only does

science get results,  but the results that scientists

are interested in are repeatedly verifiable results. 

This indeed makes science special.



Feyerabend further weakens his argument by using

telepathy and telekinesis as examples of "results"

obtained by nonscientific disciplines.  However, when

a scientist uses the word "result,"  the implied

meaning is repeatedly verifiable results.  This

repeatable verifiability makes it possible for

scientists to predict with accuracy.  Nonscientific

disciplines can predict, but often the predictions

aren't reliable.  For example, there are reports of

telepathy and telekinesis in popular articles and in

trade books but these results simply aren't

reproducible.  This isn't science.



Feyerabend states that science claims to get results,

but since other disciplines get results also, then

science has no legitimate claim to be special.  This

idea is a straw man he keeps on beating uselessly. 

How Feyerabend could have made this mistake becomes

more clear towards the end of his article, when he

states that his professional background is journalism,

not science.  See page 64.  In fact the man almost

sounds proud to be ignorant!  But how can a person

expect to really understand a discipline when he

hasn't studied under experts and when he has done no

work in it?  Should we trust a jogger or a swimmer to

teach us how to ski safely when the would-be teacher's

proud to say that he doesn't even know the way to hold

the poles and push off?



Feyerabend shows everyone that he is ignorant of the

subject on which he writes.  He says that wants us to

smile.  Indeed, that's very appropriate, since his

article is certainly a joke. Feyerabend gives us no

good reason to take his article seriously.



9:30PM Friday, February 8, 2002



7:55PM Monday, February 11, 2002



John L. Waters





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