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The following fundamental problem: which attitude shall we adopt and which kind of life shall we live? . . . is the most fundamental problem of all epistemology. . . . [W]e are confronted with a real decision, that is, a real choice with a situation which has to be resolved on the basis of our demands and preferences, and which cannot be resolved by proof. It is easy to see that these demands and these preferences concern the welfare of human beings and are therefore ethical demands: epistemology, or the structure of the knowledge we accept, is grounded upon an ethical decision.
The following fundamental problem: which attitude shall we adopt and which kind of life shall we live? . . . is the most fundamental problem of all epistemology. . . . [W]e are confronted with a real decision, that is, a real choice with a situation which has to be resolved on the basis of our demands and preferences, and which cannot be resolved by proof. It is easy to see that these demands and these preferences concern the welfare of human beings and are therefore ethical demands: epistemology, or the structure of the knowledge we accept, is grounded upon an ethical decision.
"Knowledge without foundations", two lectures delivered on the Nellie Heldt Lecture Fund, Oberlin College, Ohio, 1961.
Reprinted in: Knowledge, Science and Relativism (Philosophical Papers, Vol.3.), Cambridge University Press, 1999. p.71.
Quoted by John Preston, Feyerabend. Polity Press, 1997. p. 21.
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