The work that helped to determine Paul Feyerabend's fame and notoriety, "Against Method, " stemmed from Imre Lakatos's challenge: "In 1970 Imre cornered me at a party. 'Paul, ' he said, 'you have such strange ideas. Why don't you write them down? I shall write a reply, we publish the whole thing and I promise you we shall have a lot of fun.' " Although Lakatos died before he could write his reply, "For and Against Method" reconstructs his original counter-arguments from lectures and correspondence previously unpublished in English, allowing us to enjoy the "fun" two of this century's most...

The work that helped to determine Paul Feyerabend's fame and notoriety, "Against Method, " stemmed from Imre Lakatos's challenge: "In 1970 Imre cornered me at a party. 'Paul, ' he said, 'you have such strange ideas. Why don't you write them down? I shall write a reply, we publish the whole thing and I promise you-we shall have a lot of fun.' " Although Lakatos died before he could write his reply, "For and Against Method" reconstructs his original counter-arguments from lectures and correspondence previously unpublished in English, allowing us to enjoy the "fun" two of this century's most...

This volume arose out of a symposium on Thomas Kuhn's work, with Karl Popper in the chair.

Imre Lakatos' philosophical and scientific papers are published here in two volumes.

Imre Lakatos' philosophical and scientific papers are published here in two volumes. Volume I brings together his very influential but scattered papers on the philosophy of the physical sciences, and includes one important unpublished essay on the effect of Newton's scientific achievement. Volume II presents his work on the philosophy of mathematics (much of it unpublished), together with some critical essays on contemporary philosophers of science and some famous polemical writings on political and educational issues. Imre Lakatos had an influence out of all proportion to the length of his...

Royal Society, betrachtet die Hexentheorie als das Musterbeispiel empirischen Denkens. Wir mussen das empirische Denken definieren, ehe wir mit Hume anfangen, Bucher zu verbren nen. Das wissenschaftliche Denken konfrontiert die Theorien mit den Tatsachen; und eine der Hauptbedingungen dabei ist, dass die Theorien von den Tatsachen gestutzt sein mus sen. Wie ist das nun des genaueren moglich? Darauf sind mehrere verschiedene Antworten vorgeschlagen worden. Newton selbst glaubte, seine Gesetze aufgrundder Tatsachen bewiesen zu haben. Er war stolz darauf, keine blossen Hypothesen anzubieten; er...

Imre Lakatos's Proofs and Refutations is an enduring classic, which has never lost its relevance. Taking the form of a dialogue between a teacher and some students, the book considers various solutions to mathematical problems and, in the process, raises important questions about the nature of mathematical discovery and methodology. Lakatos shows that mathematics grows through a process of improvement by attempts at proofs and critiques of these attempts, and his work continues to inspire mathematicians and philosophers aspiring to develop a philosophy of mathematics that accounts for both...