Taking Feyerabend to the Next Level: On Linear Thinking, Indoctrination, and Academic Killer Bees

Not at all did I expect the huge amount of positive and constructive feedback that I received on my short paper on Paul Feyerabend’s philosophy which was published in issue 49(2) of the DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems. More than two decades after his death, his provocative ideas are apparently still capable of triggering an inspiring academic debate. In this paper I will comment on the thoughtful rejoinders from Burton-Jones, Gregor and Myers. I will also outline why, in spite of their well-founded criticism, I still believe that Feyerabendian thinking is most appropriate for IS research: Much more so than Popperian or Kuhnian. I will illustrate my reasoning by referring to several experiences with the academic double-blind peer review process. I will not only criticize academia’s existing deficiencies, but also suggest a potential cure. My universal remedy is based on Feyerabend’s philosophy of relativism, tolerance and pluralism, which he not so cleverly disguised as anarchism. Recently, Chua et al. (2018) suggested changes in the rules of our academic review system. I do not aim at the system, but rather at the underlying mindset. If we allow him, Feyerabend can help us with that.