Time for some more non fiction. Back in my uni days, one of my majors was the History and Philosophy of Science. I fell in love with the subject and at one stage was seriously considering an academic career in that direction. It was a good mix of history, culture, philosophy and a bunch of other things; situating philosophy within a historical, social, cultural context. All filtered through a critical gaze. A chunk of my studies in that area covered one of the crucibles of scientific development: the 17th century and a chunk of the 16th aka the Scientific Revolution.

I recall being particularly fond of the works of Paul Feyerabend, who wrote critically of the scientific method  though a few of his views were regarded as a little extreme by some. I recall doing a book review as one assignment, of his book “Science in a Free Society” and my review finally ran to about 4,000 words. I also recall getting good marks for it…thankfully. I had a photocopy of the book but many years later, a good friend gave me a copy of the original first edition. In that old post I commented that “…Feyerabend seemed to be someone who had genuine fun with ideas and tearing down ivory towers.” The photocopy itself, with my highlights and comments, rests atop the books themselves.