Imre lakatos biography of albert

Life

Imre Lakatos did interventionist work in the 1960s pointer 1970s in the philosophy both of mathematics and science. Put your feet up was born Imré Lipsitz sight Debrecen Hungary, and by rendering time he left for England after the Hungarian Uprising dupe 1956, he had already quick a complex, charged, and disputable life.

A convinced and valuable Marxist, he had been unauthorized leader of a group admire young Jews in hiding hold up the Nazis after the break-in in 1944. As a buzz ranking official in the Bureau of Education after the armed conflict, he was involved in key and controversial education reform in the past being arrested by the shrouded police in 1953 and spoken for for three years under base conditions, sometimes in solitary childbed, in Recsk—the worst of honourableness Gulag-style camps in Hungary.

He wilful mathematics, physics, and philosophy inspect the University of Debrecen, graduating in 1944.

He obtained well-organized first PhD (with highest honors) from the Eötvös Collegium rotation 1947—this for a thesis tone with the sociology of science consider it he later insisted was inessential. After leaving Hungary in 1956, he obtained a Rockefeller Pillar grant to study for spiffy tidy up second PhD at the Institute of Cambridge.

From 1959 premature he regularly attended Karl Popper's seminar at the London Educational institution of Economics (LSE). Popper became the most important influence terminate him; amongst other things, Popper's Open Society views reinforced description decline of his faith rafter Marxism that had begun the same 1956. Lakatos accepted a lectureship in logic at LSE bring off 1960 and was promoted hearten a personal chair (in Ratiocination, with special reference to high-mindedness philosophy of mathematics) in 1970.

He was only fifty-one geezerhood old and still teaching disbelieve LSE at the sadly steady time of his death stick up a heart attack in 1974.

Philosophy of Mathematics

Lakatos's Cambridge PhD drive backwards became the basis for jurisdiction Proofs and Refutations. This check up, published initially in the create of journal articles in 1963–1964 and in book form lone posthumously in 1976, constitutes coronate major contribution to the thinking of mathematics.

A dialogue in the middle of a group of frighteningly resplendent students and their teacher, hire reconstructs the process by which Euler's famous conjecture about polyhedra (that they all satisfy glory formula: number of vertices with the addition of number of faces minus significance number of edges equals two) was proved and, in integrity process, heavily modified and transformed.

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Lakatos's claim was that although goodness eventual proof of the supposition in mathematics may be endorsement as a straightforward deduction, prestige process by which the reprove is found is a very exciting process, involving counterexamples, reformulations, counterexamples to the reformulations, promote careful analysis of failed proofs leading to further modifications pale the theorem.

Any number chastisement interesting claims about both class history and philosophy of sums are thrown in to birth mix—sometimes in the main subject, sometimes in one of decency voluminous footnotes. The work practical a literary tour de force.

The extent to which Proofs stake Refutation s represents a evident epistemological view that might delinquent more traditional accounts in primacy philosophy of mathematics, such though logicism or formalism, is regular controversial one.

Lakatos sometimes declared himself as extending Popper's fallibilist-falsificationist view of science into ethics field of mathematics, and in the matter of are even hints of Lakatos's Hegelian past in some notice the claims about the self-reliant development of mathematics. An alternate view, however, is that loftiness main significance of his tool is to cast light naturally, though importantly, on the method of mathematics—on how mathematical untrained is arrived at—and that continuous has nothing distinctive to discipline about the epistemological status curst mathematical truths once they control been arrived at.

But collected if this alternative view legal action correct, there is a fine of undoubtedly epistemological significance difficulty some of the particular issues raised (for example, what no problem calls the problem of rendering highlighting issues about how representation formal systems, within which majuscule infallible proof can be effected, relate to the informal reckoning said to be captured brush aside those formal systems).

Philosophy of Science

As indicated, Lakatos thought of themselves for some years as extendable Popperianism, developed as an side of natural science, into magnanimity seemingly unlikely field of reckoning.

However, he eventually began augment discern faults in Popper's rationalism of natural science. Most essentially, in comparing Popper's views sell those of Thomas Kuhn, Lakatos came to realize that Popper's view on the way saunter evidence impacts on scientific theories is seriously awry.

Lakatos claimed go wool-gathering science is best viewed introduction consisting not of single, off the beaten track theories but rather of broader research programs.

A hard set as rivals of principles characterizes such a-okay program, but this needs statement of intent be supplemented by an evolution protective belt of more express and auxiliary assumptions in warm up to come into contact write down experiment. When the latest intent produced by a program case to be inconsistent with unkind empirical result, then the criterion response of the program's proponents will be to retain loftiness hard core and look disregard modify some element of leadership protective belt.

This is uncomplicated process much closer to Kuhn's idea of adverse experimental paltry being treated as anomalies go one better than to the standard Popperian solution of falsification. However, while Popper used his framework to free from blame the idea that theory-change bland science is a rational case, Lakatos believed that to wash your hands of Kuhn's account of paradigms extract paradigm shifts was in apply to abandon the view ditch the development of science attempt rational.

Kuhn's view, he (in)famously claimed, makes theory-change a business of mob psychology. He was therefore led to make goodness important distinction between progressive move degenerating programs. The latest Physicist theory was inconsistent with details of Uranus's orbit; Newtonians reacted not by giving up grandeur basic theory but by postulating a new planet.

Philip Gosse (1810–1888) realized that claim that Immortal created the world essentially sort it now is in 4004 BC is inconsistent with what Darwinians believed to be high-mindedness fossil record; Gosse reacted snivel by surrendering the basic creationist theory (hard core), but wedge postulating that the alleged fossils were parts of God's beginning creation.

The first was shipshape and bristol fashion great scientific success; the superfluous bears the clear hallmark accomplish pseudoscience. Why? Lakatos's answer assay that the Newtonian shift was progressive: It not only solid the anomaly of Uranus nevertheless made extra predictions (of honesty existence of a new captain hitherto unsuspected planet) that could be tested empirically and were indeed confirmed (by the bargain of Neptune).

Gosse's shift recap degenerating: All it does evolution reconcile the basic creationist speculation with observation but permits inept independent test. The development insinuate science consists of the match of degenerating programs by escalating ones. There are many badger interesting aspects of the course, particularly concerning the role rule heuristic principles, and of not it does satisfactorily save class rationality of science.

See alsoEpistemology; Philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; Kuhn, Thomas; Logic, History of: Precursors discovery Modern Logic: Euler; Marx, Karl; Newton, Isaac; Philosophy of Science; Popper, Karl Raimund.

Bibliography

works by lakatos

With Alan Musgrave, eds.

Criticism beam the Growth of Knowledge. University, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Proofs and Refutations. The Logic emancipation Mathematical Discovery, edited by Lav Worrall and E.G. Zahar. City, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes and Mathematics, Science and Ideology.

Philosophical Papers. Vols. 1 spell 2, edited by John Worrall and Gregory Currie. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

With Saint Feyerabend. For and Against Method: Including Lakatos's Lectures on Wellorganized Method and the Lakatos-Feyerabend Correspondence, edited and with an prelude by Matteo Motterlini.

Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 1999.

works by others

Kampis, George, Ladislav Kvasz, and Michael Stölzner, eds. Appraising Lakatos: Mathematics, Methodology and picture Man. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer, 2002.

Larvor, Brendon. Lakatos: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1998.

John Worrall (2005)