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.

費耶阿本德（19241——994），齣生於維也納。1940年應召去德國納粹軍隊服役。1947年迴維也納大學學習曆史和社會學，不久轉學物理學。1951年費耶咧本德獲得哲學博士學位。1952年跟隨波普從事研究。1 959年獲得伯剋利加州大學終身職位。費耶阿本德是西方現代哲學史上最重要的科學哲學傢之一，主要著作有《反對方法》、《自由社會中的科學》、《實在論、理性主義與科學方法》、《經驗主義問題》、《告彆理性》、《關於知識的三篇對話》、《蹉跎：保羅·費耶阿本德自傳》、《知識、科學與相對主義》等。