The philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend became known for his so-called "anarchistic" view of modern science, due to his rejection of the value of universal methodological rules and his position that science should be strictly separated from the state. In his essay "Against Method or Who's Afraid of Irrationality?" Feyerabend provocatively argues that in contemporary Western societies, contrary to the emancipatory mandate of the Enlightenment, which wanted people to free themselves from a state of mental subjugation, people remain subjugated in their way of thinking because if they dare to question the dominant scientific rationality, they are accused of "irrationality". According to Feyerabend, this dismal state, which is not only connected to science but also to the entirety of social relations, should make us wonder whether Western societies have only discarded the tyranny of religion in order to replace it with the tyranny of science.

"Not so long ago, if someone was accused of being an atheist, even people who had a critical stance towards the dominant ideology took it very seriously. Similarly, only a few today can resist the hypnotic power exerted by words such as 'reason', 'truth', 'scientificity', even though almost no one can tell us what these things are, what truth is, what reason is, and what determines scientific behavior." Paul Feyerabend