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Birth
Imre Lakatos was born Imre Lipschitz to a Jewish family (mother and grandmother both died in Auschwitz) in Debrecen, Hungary. -
Changed Name
To avoid Nazi Persecution Imre changed his name to Imre Molnar. -
Early education
Received a degree in mathematics, physics, and philosophy from the University of Debrecen -
Hungarian Ministry of education
Imre found himself a position at the Hungarian Ministry of Education for a while but, naturally, he found it difficult to take orders from Russian authorities which landed him in a bit of trouble -
3 years in prison
For his views and his questioning of authority, Imre was arrested and sent to prison for 3 years. -
Imre's Release
Upon his release after Stalin's death, Imre found work translating math books into Hungarian. -
Relocation to Vienna
For fear of being arrested a second time during the Hungarian Revolution to push out the Russian Regime, Imre fled to Vienna. -
Settling into Great Britain
In 1960, he was hired at the London School of Economics as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, where he wrote extensively on the philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics. He taught here for 14 years until his death -
Doctoral Thesis
Eventually Lakatos found his way to England and he began to study at the University of Cambridge for a doctorate in philosophy. He went on to write his doctoral thesis "Essays in the Logic of Mathematical Discovery" which was later republished in a 4 part article after his death called Proof and Refutations -
Period: to
Proofs and Refutations
This publication to the British Journal for Philosophy of Science explained many of Imre's ideologies. For example, the difference between a counterexample to a lemma and a counterexample to the specific conjecture under attack is discussed. Unfortunately Imre never got the chance to write this into a book to expand on his ideals as he was intending to improve on his work so he simply refused to do so until he felt it was ready. -
Unexpected Death
Imre unexpectedly died of a heart attack at the age of 51 leaving many of his projects in the philosophy of mathematics and science incomplete. -
I Lakatos: Proofs and Refutation: The Logic of Mathmatical Discovery
Two years after his death his work was compiled and published into a book by J Worral.
