On Feyerabend's version of "Mach's theory of research and its relation to Einstein"

Abstract

Recently, the network of interactions around the "philosopher-scientist" Ernst Mach and especially his contested influence on Einstein have acquired new interest on account of several studies in which a revision of the "received versions" concerning the "Mach - Einstein episode" has been attempted. Paul K. Feyerabend has proposed among some "lessons to be learned" that "one cannot trust received opinions or received versions of great turning points of science", and started his program of elimination of "incorrect", and "simpleminded" legends in the history of science with a new reconstruction of the "battle about Mach and positivism: a net of confusions."