There's madness in your method: a philosophical exploration into the thought of Paul Feyerabend and its implications for music education

Abstract

Drawing on the work of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend, this paper argues that the popular yet mistaken notion of scientific method has had a deleterious effect on music education by discouraging us from embracing conflict or pursuing counterinductive ways of thinking about music. Feyerabend argues that knowledge advances not according to principles traditionally associated with scientific method, but rather as a result of ad hoc hypotheses, counterinduction, and contradictions that are recognised between partly overlapping theories that are mutually inconsistent. Ignoring this truth results in the erasure of all but abstract forms of knowledge acquired through methodical investigation, which occurs when educators put all of their faith in method and ignore musical knowledge that escapes articulation or measurement. Yet tacit or informal musical knowledge can be seen as the artistic equivalent of the ad hoc propositions that are required, ultimately, to advance knowledge.

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