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The Birth And Childhood: Imre Lakatos
On November 9, 1922 Imre Avrum Lipchitz was born to parents Jacob Lipchitz and Margit Hertsfeld in Debrecen, Hungary. Lakatos was born into a Jewish family. He faced a difficult childhood considering the wars and bigotry that he grew up surrounded by. Since Lakatos was Jewish and his native home had been invaded he had experienced the bruteness and abuse of Nazis in 1944 when Hungary was invaded. Lakatos took part in the formation of an anti-Nazi group and was able to avoid prosecution. -
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Background Information: Imre Lakatos
After escaping war ,in 1947, Lakatos began working in Hungarian ministry: Education. He was devastated following the deaths of his grandmother and mother in Auschwitz and he changed his last name for a second time (the first being to avoid prosecution) from Molnar to Lakatos after his good acquaintance who had died. He furthered his education as well. -
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Imprisonment of Imre Lakatos
In 1949, Imre Lakatos was attending Moscow State University in Moscow before he returned to Hungary. Before, leaving for Moscow Lakatos had been a part of Hungary's communist party which wasn't far-fetched because he had previously started a Marxist group before escaping Nazis. When he returned and started to lose in arguments related to decision making of the communist party he was accused of re-interrupting historical records and imprisoned for revisionism he went to jail in 1950 until 1953. -
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Imre Lakatos' : Contribution to Science
Lakatos is involved in the advancement & learning of many different academic disciplines form math, philosophy to science and pseudoscience. He is well known for his thesis of fallibity (no belief can have justification/ this guarantees the belief is true). He also introduced methodology of proofs and refutations and research. Lakatos' work is influenced by the work of Kuhn and Karl Popper. In fact he directly uses their work to contrast the two and assert his own to see differences in science. -
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Key Event : Imre Lakatos - Research Programme (+ picture of major work)
Lakatos used Karl Popper and Kuhn's work as well as his own. He replaced Kuhn's idea of scientific ideas with his own and with Popper's as well, interchangeably. He used his 'research programme' ( collection of papers that offered critique of Popper's falsifiability theory). This was able to lead Lakatos to a new theory
rationality in science. He created a model to display the Methodology of scientific research programme. It showed: acceptability, and trustworthiness of scientific proposals. -
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The Methodolgy of Sceintific Recesrch Programmes
Imre published his Methodology of scientific Research Programme in 1963. Detailed under (1963) Key event. Lakatos, Imre. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Volume 1: Philosophical Papers. Cambridge UP, 1963. -
Death of Imre Lakatos
Following his imprisonment Lakatos remained in Hungary until 1956 and then he fled because the Soviet Union had invaded Hungary. He went to Vienna. He later made his way to England and his education and he also continued his contributions in philosophy, math and science. He died in London, England in 1974. -
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Imre Lakatos': Proofs and Refutions
In 1976, Imre Lakatos' essay "Proofs and Refutations" was published Lakatos, Imre. Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery. Cambridge UP, 1976. -
Reference/ Citations:
New World Enclyopedia. (2014). Imre Lakatos.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Imre_Lakatos. 2 February 2020. Antimatter. (2011). Kuhn Vs.Popper; the Philosophy of Lakatos. https://antimatter.ie/2011/02/11/kuhn-vs-popper-the-philosophy-of-lakatos/. 2 February 2020.
