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Birth, 1922
Born into a Jewish family in Hungary, Imre Lipschitz, or soon to be Imre Lakatos, would have to face great tragedy early on in his life. Due to the rise of Nazism in Germany and the eventual alignment of Hungary to those ideals, both his mother and grandmother were eventually sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to die. -
Education, Communist involvement, and post-war
Once the war had ended, Lakatos was a hardened communist and accepted a job at the ministry of education. He also later had earned his PhD. Although Lakatos was a devout communist at the time, he would soon learn that the ideology that helped defeat the Nazis, was just as bad. -
Political Disagreement, and imprisonment 1950-1953
At the end of the second world war, Lakatos mainly aligned himself with the Soviet Union. However, trouble would soon rear its head once again for Lakatos. Due to his disagreements with the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union, he was placed in prison for 3 years. Although, after his release, he took up an interest in mathematics and this would lead to some of his most pertinent works. -
Defection to England, 1956-1960
With a power vacuum present in the Soviet Union with the demise of Joseph Stalin, unrest grew in the eastern block. During this time Hungary was stirred up into a revolt, and during such time Lakatos fled through Europe and landed himself in England. Lakatos would continue his interest in Mathematics and take up a position at the London School of economics. After his disillusionment of Marxism, he would form the ideas of a degenerate research program and research programs in general. -
Proofs and Refutations, 1963-1964
From England, Lakatos would publish some of his strongest and monumental works. Proofs and Refutations being the first, regularly posted in public journals. These articles would discuss mathematics outside the very basic framework it was set in. -
"Research Programme", 1970
Expanding upon the ideas of Popper, Lakatos began to formulate the ideas of "progressive" and "degenerate" research programs. The idea of a "progressive" research program is one that is able to make great predictions of future discoveries. The defining idea of a degenerative research program is one that only seeks to accommodate current problems and explanations and adds no real basis to further understandings. -
Death, and "Proofs and Refutations" 1974-1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfHBg01Gog
Suffering a heart attack, Lakatos had died in the U.K. However, years after his death, Lakatos's works were published as the book "Proofs and Refutations" and still has a strong influence on the philosophy of science in today's world.
