The Moral Necessity of Liberal Government on Epistemic Basis: The Example of Paul Feyerabend

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether science is hierarchically superior, as claimed, in its relationship with other forms of knowledge produced by humans in their efforts to understand and explain the world -even if it is superior- and whether it can impose its findings on how people should live. This study will examine Feyerabend's theory of epistemological anarchism with the aim of determining what kind of administrative mentality is required by the pertinent theory. Feyerabend forms his epistemology by examining the problem of how science works through historical perspective, which declares itself universally and necessarily valid on the basis of rationality and objectivity. According to the relevant analysis, it will be seen that science is only one of the tools to reach knowledge, that it does not always provide accurate information, and that it uses a pluralist methodology, not a monist approach. Ultimately, based on this epistemic analysis, it will be argued that scientific research is/should be pluralist in itself and that the understanding of governance strategy should exhibit a liberal approach that is obliged to allow diversity, depending on the relevant pluralist epistemic basis.