Lakatos Quotes & Sayings

Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind. — Imre Lakatos

The great scientific achievements are research programmes which can be evaluated in terms of progressive and degenerative problemshifts; and scientific revolutions consist of one research programme superceding (overtaking in progress) another. This methodology offers a new rational reconstruction of science. — Imre Lakatos

Quite clearly, the one thing the dominant culture cannot tolerate or co-opt is compassion, the ability to stand in solidarity with the victims of the present order. It can manage charity and good intentions, but it has no way to resist solidarity with pain or grief. So — Walter Brueggemann

In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts — Imre Lakatos

No experimental result can ever kill a theory: any theory can be saved from counterinstances either by some auxiliary hypothesis or by a suitable reinterpretation of its terms. — Imre Lakatos

Just seize every opportunity you have, embrace every experience. Make a mark, for all the right reasons. — Chrissie Wellington

Indeed, this epistemological theory of the relation between theory and experiment differs sharply from the epistemological theory of naive falsificationism. — Imre Lakatos

I always at home as a kid tried to move something with your hand and it doesn't move and then you get to do it in a movie. I mean my superpower is quickness but you know what I'm saying. You get a superpower and you're like "Man this is awesome. I get to pretend I have a superpower." — Evan Peters

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic. — Imre Lakatos

It is not that we propose a theory and Nature may shout NO; rather, we propose a maze of theories, and Nature may shout INCONSISTENT. — Imre Lakatos

Schuyler knew that one day it would come to this. That she would have to lose one to have the other one. That this game would have consequences. — Melissa De La Cruz

If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power. — Imre Lakatos

Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime. — Imre Lakatos

There is no falsification before the emergence of a better theory. — Imre Lakatos

She wanted to know what happened on New Year's Eve, when the boy suddenly disappeared from her life without any notice. Why did Bence leave her all alone, haunted with doubt? If he wanted to end their relationship, then why didn't he just tell her straightforward? Why couldn't he just say to her "Lili, my dear, it's over"? She wanted answers. On her way to the lavish restaurant, the courage to get the answers she so desired raged within her. This won't be a date; this will be an execution. — Levente Lakatos

One may rationally stick to a degenerating research programme until it is overtaken by a rival and even after. What one must not do is to deny its poor public record ... It is perfectly rational to play a risky game: what is irrational is to deceive oneself about the risk. — Imre Lakatos

I went back to the office and sat in my swivel chair and tried to catch up on my foot-dangling. There was a gusty wind blowing in at the windows and the soot from the oil burners of the hotel next door was drown-draughted into the room and rolling across the top of the desk like tumbleweed drifting across a vacant lot. I was thinking about going out to lunch and that life was pretty flat and that it would probably be just as flat if I took a drink and that taking a drink all alone at that time of day wouldn't be any fun anyway. — Raymond Chandler

The clash between Popper and Kuhn is not about a mere technical point in epistemology. — Imre Lakatos

The growing inequality of wealth and income distribution is both a moral and economic problem. If the wealthy are unwilling to pay more taxes, then this is going to lead to spending cuts. And if you put off the table things like national defense, then you're going to end up cutting more and more out of programs that aid the poor. So, I think there are consequences to this idea that tolerance for inequality requires us to - to just do nothing to make the wealthy contribute a higher share of resources to fund the government. — Bruce Bartlett

The proving power of the intellect or the senses was questioned by the skeptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics. — Imre Lakatos

Man's respect for knowledge is one of his most peculiar characteristics. Knowledge in Latin is scientia, and science came to be the name of the most respectable kind of knowledge. — Imre Lakatos

Belief may be a regrettably unavoidable biological weakness to be kept under the control of criticism: but commitment is for Popper an outright crime. — Imre Lakatos

Mathematics does not grow through a monotonous increase of the number of indubitably established theorems but through the incessant improvement of guesses by speculation and criticism, by the logic of proofs and refutations. — Imre Lakatos

That sometimes clear ... and sometimes vague stuff ... which is ... mathematics. — Imre Lakatos

Our empirical criterion for a series of theories is that it should produce new facts. The idea of growth and the concept of empirical character are soldered into one. — Imre Lakatos

Einstein's results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge. — Imre Lakatos

Intellectual honesty consists in stating the precise conditions under which one will give up one's belief. — Imre Lakatos

A heart sacrifice is not a formula that can be mastered. It is a decision that is intrinsically tied to the personal relationship between us and our God. — Carol Kent

The history of mathematics, lacking the guidance of philosophy, [is] blind, while the philosophy of mathematics, turning its back on the most intriguing phenomena in the history of mathematics, is empty. — Imre Lakatos

It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all its heuristic power, that one must not introduce a rival programme before everybody agrees that the point of degeneration has probably been reached. — Imre Lakatos

Every world forms its own people, and every person his own world. The two live within one another as best they can. — Menyhert Lakatos

The Feynman quip is not without a philosopher's tu quoque: "most scientists tend to understand little more about science than fish about hydrodynamics" (Lakatos 1978:62 n.2). — Robert Nola

The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever. — Imre Lakatos

The positive heuristic of the programme saves the scientist from becoming confused by the ocean of anomalies. — Imre Lakatos