This is the full version of the paper I gave at the Zurich Conference:

WITHIN THE DOMAIN OF THE SUN’S INVERSE

ABSTRACT:

Paul Feyerabend is often associated with a destructive criticism leading to an anarchism that flouts every rule and a relativism that treats all opinions as equal. This negative stereotype is based on ignorance and rumour rather than on any real engagement with his texts. Feyerabend’s work from beginning to end turns around problems of ontology and realism, culminating in the outlines of a sophisticated form of pluralist realism. The still largely unknown ontological turn taken by Feyerabend’s work in the last decade of his life was based on four strands of argument: the historical approach, cosmological criticism, the quantum analogy (complementarity), and the primacy of democracy.

The question was posed: Where are we when thinking computationally? Following an indication from Michel Serres my answer is: in the…