Imre Lakatos
Imre Lakatos
Imre Lakatoswas a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its 'methodology of proofs and refutations' in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the concept of the 'research programme' in his methodology of scientific research programmes...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth9 November 1922
order facts theory
In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts
giving-up honesty intellectual
Intellectual honesty consists in stating the precise conditions under which one will give up one's belief.
science achievement progress
The great scientific achievements are research programmes which can be evaluated in terms of progressive and degenerative problemshifts; and scientific revolutions consist of one research programme superceding (overtaking in progress) another. This methodology offers a new rational reconstruction of science.
theory falsification emergence
There is no falsification before the emergence of a better theory.
numbers criticism doe
Mathematics does not grow through a monotonous increase of the number of indubitably established theorems but through the incessant improvement of guesses by speculation and criticism, by the logic of proofs and refutations.
games play risk
One may rationally stick to a degenerating research programme until it is overtaken by a rival and even after. What one must not do is to deny its poor public record... It is perfectly rational to play a risky game: what is irrational is to deceive oneself about the risk.
confused ocean heuristics
The positive heuristic of the programme saves the scientist from becoming confused by the ocean of anomalies.
theory hypothesis results
No experimental result can ever kill a theory: any theory can be saved from counterinstances either by some auxiliary hypothesis or by a suitable reinterpretation of its terms.
years two confusion
The proving power of the intellect or the senses was questioned by the skeptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics.
commitment intellectual blind
Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime.