From Homeric gods to galaxies, from love affairs to perspective in painting, Paul Feyerabend revelled in the physical and cultural abundance that surrounds us. He found it equally striking that human senses and human intelligence are able to take in only a fraction of these riches. From this fraction, scientists, artists, all of us construct encompassing abstractions and stereotypes. This basic human trait is at the heart of "Conquest of Abundance", the book on which Feyerabend was at work when he died in 1994. Prepared from drafts of the manuscript left at his death, working notes, and lectures and articles Feyerabend wrote while the larger work was in progress, "Conquest of Abundance" offers up exploration and startling insights with the charm, lucidity, and sense of mischief that are his hallmarks. Feyerabend is fascinated by how we attempt to explain and predict the mysteries of the natural world, and he describes ways in which we abstract experience, explain anomalies, and reduce wonder to formulas and equations. Through his exploration of the positive and negative consequences of these efforts, Feyerabend reveals the "conquest of abundance" as an integral part of the history and character of Western civilization. Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) was educated in Europe and held numerous teaching posts throughout his career, including at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1959 to 1990. His "Against Method" - translated into 17 languages - is a classic of modern philosophy of science. The University of Chicago Press published his autobiography, "Killing Time", in 1995.

费耶阿本德（19241——994），出生于维也纳。1940年应召去德国纳粹军队服役。1947年回维也纳大学学习历史和社会学，不久转学物理学。1951年费耶咧本德获得哲学博士学位。1952年跟随波普从事研究。1 959年获得伯克利加州大学终身职位。费耶阿本德是西方现代哲学史上最重要的科学哲学家之一，主要著作有《反对方法》、《自由社会中的科学》、《实在论、理性主义与科学方法》、《经验主义问题》、《告别理性》、《关于知识的三篇对话》、《蹉跎：保罗·费耶阿本德自传》、《知识、科学与相对主义》等。