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Birth Date
Imre was born in Debrecen, Hungary and was in a Jewish family. -
Early Life
The year is 1944 and Hitler's Nazi Germany was on the move to Hungary. Jewish people had the choice of cooperation or get punished, some Jewish people chose to cooperate and the many many others were arrested. Jewish people who spoke out were given yellow stars and forced off their own property. During the war Imre found himself at the University of Decebren and graduated in 1944. He obtained his degree in Math, Physics, and Philosophy. -
Early Life (cont.)
Imre had to avoid Nazis at all costs which meant changing his name. At first he changed his name to Imre Molnar, he survived the Jewish prosecution under this name, unfortunately though his mother and grandmother died in Auschwitz, one of the many concentration camps. After the war he would not have much money and would need to change his name again to match the initials I.L. on his clothes. Instead of going back to his Jewish last name, he chose Lakatos after a peace seeking General. -
Ministry of Education
Imre had found himself in a place of position at the Hungarian Ministry of Education in 1947. He had certain views that differed from the Russians who were above him there though and that landed him three years in a stalinist prison during the 1950s. Three years later he was released and for money he started translating math books in Hungary. -
Hungary's Withdraw from the Warsaw Pact
Hungary's withdraw to become a neutral country was not a good luck for the Russians and the Russians would surely make Hungary pay. Russia was forced to create a solitary government in Hungary and surround them with tanks, about 200,000 people got away and went West and many were captured and sent to the Soviet Union. Lakatos fled to Vienna. -
University of Cambridge
After fleeing from Hungary Imre finds himself studying at Cambridge, continuing to further his philosophy degree. While there he wrote his doctoral thesis: "Essays in the Logic of Mathematics Discovery". This was submitted to the University of Cambridge in 1961. After Cambridge Lakatos wen to teach at the London School of Economics. -
London School of Economics
Lakatos would teach here for 14 years. Throughout his time here he would give lectures and continue building on his papers. Some people descibed his lectures as "difficult, abstract subject riddled with technicalities...but he did so in a way which made it intelligible, fascinating, dramatic..."(Obituary in "The Times") In 1963-1964 he published "Proofs and Refutations" this was four parts that go with "British Journal for Philosophy of Science". -
Later Works
His papers of "Proof and Refutations", that eventually became a book after his death, is a refelction of how he saw Poppers "conjectures and Refutations". Lakatos' point was that how Math and Science came about were a lot alike. His book is about the philosophies of mathematics which come out to actually misrepresenting mathematics. Imre believed that a proof can be respectable without being flawless, so a proof can have flaws basically and refuted thesis' sometimes survive, very odd. -
Last of Lakatos' Major Contributions
Lakatos Last major contribution to the philosophy of science would be his version of Poppers theory. Popper didn't believe and Lakatos did. Popper believed in falsification, which is if it is possible to specify observation statements which prove it wrong. Not really a good way to look at science because you can rule out too much. Lakatos believed that a theory is "good" science, the absolute opposite of Popper. -
Died
Imre Lakatos died on this date in London, England -
Imre Lakatos Educational Video