Miskatonic University Press

Last month I quoted Ian Hacking saying Paul Feyerabend “wrote wonderful indexes to his books; indeed there are completely different indexes to the first and third editions of Against Method, each reflecting what he wanted the reader to know.” I found a copy of the first edition in the library, and the index is not by Feyerabend! It’s credited to Alex Bellamy. There’s more about it in “Unplaying an Unreview of Critical Play” by Cynthia Haynes (2010):

In 1975, for example, Alex Bellamy created the index for the first edition of Paul Feyerabend’s book, Against Method. Ironically, Bellamy was working at the time for/with Imre Lakatos, to whom Feyerabend had “playfully” dedicated his book (although the two scholars were locked in an infamous and protracted debate about the philosophy of science and research methodologies). Lakatos’ assistant, Bellamy, was not amused and decided to play an “anti-Paul” joke on Feyerabend in the index entry for “rhetoric,” which directs readers to pages 1–309. Subsequent editions of the book contained a completely different index, sans “rhetoric 1–309.”

It’ll be a little while before I can look at the third or fourth edition, but here is the A section of the index (without page references) from the first edition (New Left Books, 1975), by Alex Bellamy. He did a name index and a subject index, but I’ve merged them here.

• Abbé, E.
• Abraham, M,
• Achinstein, P.
• action; see under ideas; standards
• acupuncture; see also Chinese communism and medicine
• ad hoc hypotheses: and critical rationalism; and incommensurability; and myth; presence in modern science; progressive role in science
• Aenesidemus
• Aeschylus
• Agatharchos
• aim of science
• Akiba, Rabbi
• al-Farghani
• Alhazen
• alienation
• Althusser, L.
• Ames, A.
• anamensis
• anarchism: epistemological; political; religious; see also dadaism
• Anaximander
• Anaximenes
• anthropology; the anthropological method and incommensurability; of science and cosmology; see also field study
• anything goes, principle of
• appearances; in ancient Greek cosmology; reality or fallacy of; see also natural interpretations; vs. reality
• Aquinas, St. Thomas
• argument: and cosmology; vs. emotions; and epistemological anarchism; as a hindrance to progress; and incommensurability; the limited value of; and logicians; as a method of indoctrination; and the methodology of scientific research programmes; from observation and natural interpretations; and scientific chauvinism
• Aristarchus
• Aristotelianism; basic value judgments; vs. Copernicanism; dynamics and theory of motion; empiricism, scientific method, and theory of knowledge and perception; form of life; philosophical system and cosmology; science; theory of space
• Aristotle
• Aristotle’s theories, astronomy; theory of the continuum
• Armitage, A.
• Armstrong, D.
• art; archaic style; and science
• Ashmole, B.
• astrology
• astronomy; ancient Greek; Babylonian and Egyptian; medieval; palaeolithic and stone age; Ptolemaic; and science; see also Copernicanism
• atomism
• Augustine, St.
• Austin, J.L.
• authority
• Autolycus
• auxiliary theories and sciences; see also secondary elaborations
• axiomatics
• Ayer, A.J.

From the revised edition (Verso, 1988), with no credited indexer, so presumably by Feyerabend himself (also with page references left out):

• anamensis
• anarchism; anything goes; epistemological; methodology and; naive; political
• Anaximander
• Anscombe, Elizabeth
• anthropology; case study of quantum tribe
• anything goes; see anarchism
• appearances; see also natural interpretations
• argument; emotions and; incommensurability and; value of; see also anarchism; incommensurability
• Aristotle; biology; Copernican theory and; cosmology; dynamics and motion; intuitive view of humans; knowledge and perception; poetics; scientific method; archaic style and perception; perspective
• The Assayer (Galileo)
• astronomy; ancient; Ptolemaic; medieval; see also Copernicus; Galileo; Newton; telescope
• auxiliary sciences

In the second one, under astronomy, medieval follows Ptolemaic in the index even though it comes before it alphabetically and in the book. Feyerabend’s indexing will receive further investigation soon, I hope.