Hungarian studies in Lakatos' philosophies of mathematics and science

摘要

The broad outlines of Lakatos' life (1922—1974) are fairly well known. He was born in Hungary, educated at the University of Debrecen and lived in Hungary until the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, at which time he fled to Vienna. From there he went to Cambridge England on a Rockefeller scholarship, received a Ph.D. in 1961 advised by George Polya (in mathematics) and R.B. Braithwaite (in philosophy of science), and was influenced by K. Popper. He wrote his dissertation "Essays in the Logic of Mathematical Discovery," which was serialized in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in 1963—64 as "Proofs and Refutations," and published as a book posthumously edited by J. Worrall and E. Zahar. Lakatos joined Popper at the London School of Economics in 1960, was very active in philosophy of science circles and labeled a Popperian. His best known essay in the philosophy of science, "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs" (MSRP) was published in 1970. He succeeded Popper in the chair of Logic in 1969—70, and was also editor of British Journal for the Philosophy of Science until his death.