The Philosopher's Corner: The Value of Philosophical Debate: Paul Feyerabend and his Relevance for IS Research

Abstract

This article is a critique of Horst Treiblmaier's article that was published in the May issue of this journal, in which he discussed the relevance of Paul Feyerabend's philosophy for the field of information systems. Treiblmaier proposed epistemological anarchism, methodological anarchism, and "anything goes" as a guiding principle for IS. I disagree with these three propositions. In fact, I believe that Treiblmaier has misinterpreted Feyerabend's position and suggest that Feyerabend's philosophy needs to be understood within the context of the philosophical debate about the nature of science that was taking place at the time. Of course, no one scientific method should be imposed on all scientists, and I agree that we need epistemological and methodological diversity, but this is not the same as anarchy. Instead of anarchy, I support a "disciplined methodological pluralism" in our field.