Imre Lakatos

For other people with the same name, see Lakatos (disambiguation).
The native form of this personal name is Lakatos Imre. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Imre Lakatos
Lakatos, c. 1960s
Born(1922-11-09)9 November 1922
Debrecen, Hungary
Died2 February 1974(1974-02-02) (aged 51)
London, England
EducationUniversity of Debrecen (PhD, 1948)
Moscow State University
University of Cambridge (PhD, 1961)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy[1]
Historical turn[1]
Fallibilism
Mathematical quasi-empiricism
Historiographical internalism[2]
InstitutionsLondon School of Economics
ThesisEssays in the Logic of Mathematical Discovery (1961)
Doctoral advisorR. B. Braithwaite
Other academic advisorsSofya Yanovskaya
Doctoral studentsDonald A. Gillies
Spiro Latsis
John Worrall
Main interests
Philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, history of science, epistemology, politics
Notable ideas
Method of proofs and refutations, methodology of scientific research programmes, methodology of historiographical research programmes,[3] positive vs. negative heuristics, progressive vs. degenerative research programmes, rational reconstruction, mathematical quasi-empiricism, criticism of logical positivism and formalism, sophisticated falsificationism[4]
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Imre Lakatos (UK: /ˈlækətɒs/,[6] US: /-toʊs/; Hungarian: Lakatos Imre [ˈlɒkɒtoʃ ˈimrɛ]; 9 November 1922 – 2 February 1974) was 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.

  1. ^ a b E. Reck (ed.), The Historical Turn in Analytic Philosophy, Springer, 2016: ch. 4.2.
  2. ^ Kostas Gavroglu, Yorgos Goudaroulis, P. Nicolacopoulos (eds.), Imre Lakatos and Theories of Scientific Change, Springer, 2012, p. 211.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ K. Gavroglu, Y. Goudaroulis, P. Nicolacopoulos (eds.), Imre Lakatos and Theories of Scientific Change, Springer, 2012, p. 61.
  5. ^ András Máté (2006). "Árpád Szabó and Imre Lakatos, Or the relation between history and philosophy of mathematics" (PDF). Perspectives on Science. 14 (3): 282–301. doi:10.1162/posc.2006.14.3.282. S2CID 53941387.
  6. ^ Philosophy of Science: Popper and Lakatos, lecture on the philosophy of science of Karl Popper and Imre Lakatos, delivered to master's students at the University of Sussex in November 2014.