The abundant world: Paul Feyerabend's metaphysics of science

• Provides an interpretation of Feyerabend's metaphysics of science as found in late works like Conquest of Abundance.
• Feyerabend's late metaphysics consists of an attempt to criticize and replace traditional scientific realism aka materialism.
• I describe Feyerabend's alternative view, “the abundant world” or “abundant realism.”
• Feyerabend ultimately seeks to use metaphysics to improve the fit between science and democratic society.

The goal of this paper is to provide an interpretation of Feyerabend's metaphysics of science as found in late works like Conquest of Abundance and Tyranny of Science. Feyerabend's late metaphysics consists of an attempt to criticize and provide a systematic alternative to traditional scientific realism, a package of views he sometimes referred to as “scientific materialism.” Scientific materialism is objectionable not only on metaphysical grounds, nor because it provides a poor ground for understanding science, but because it implies problematic claims about the epistemic and cultural authority of science, claims incompatible with situating science properly in democratic societies. I show how Feyerabend's metaphysical view, which I call “the abundant world” or “abundant realism,” constitute a sophisticated and challenging form of ontological pluralism that makes interesting connections with contemporary philosophy of science and issues of the political and policy role of science in a democratic society.