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The Beginning
Imre Lakatos was born in Debrecen, Hungary on November 09, 1922. Lakatos was not Imre's birth given surname, it was however, Imre Lipschitz. Imre changed his last name in fear during WWII when Nazi Germany invaded Hungary. This would be the beginning of a long and difficult road for Imre to venture down on his path to becoming a well renowned philosopher in mathematics. -
Imre as a Young Adult
During WWII both Imre's mother and grandmother were imprisoned in Auschwitz Concentration Camp and would unfortunately meet their untimely demise here. Despite living through such a horrible early life, Lakatos pushed on and would go on to complete his degree in mathematics, physics, and philosophy at Debrecen University. -
Lakatos' Political Career
In his early adulthood, Lakatos participated in politics. He was a practicing communist during WWII and later took on the position as a senior official at the Hungarian Ministry of Education in 1947. Three years later, Imre found himself in political disrepair for refusing to follow Russian orders with no reason and was charged with revisionism. He would serve three years in a Stalinist prison for this. -
Post Prison
In 1953, when Imre was released from prison, he started back at his research in mathematics. He began the translation of mathematics books into Hungarian. -
Leaving Hungary
In 1956, while the Hungarian Revolution was taking place, Lakatos fled Hungary to Vienna, and finally to Great Britain where he would live out the rest of his life. -
Philisophical Begginings
In 1960, Imre was hired at the London School of Economics as an assistant lecturer of the Department of Philosophy. He was also attending Cambridge University at this time. While attending Cambridge, Lakatos began to compile his thesis 'Essays on the Logic of Mathematical Discovery'. His thesis was later published in four separate parts as 'Proofs and Refutations' in the 'The British Journal for The Philosophy of Science' between 1963 and 1964. -
Major Works
In 1961, Lakatos tried to prove Euler-Descartes theorem as part of his doctoral thesis. However, his major contribution to philosophy of science was his idea of a scientific 'research programme' that involved him attempting to create a synthesis of Thomas Kuhn's model of scientific theory change and Karl Popper's theory of falsificationism. He developed a research programme that focused on evaluating research as "progressive" or "degenerative", instead of whether it was "true or false". -
Untimely Death
Imre Lakatos died on February 2, 1974 after suffering an unexpected heart attack at the age of 51. Several of his projects were left unfinished. Several pieces of his work were released posthumously to include two books, "Lakatos 1978 and 1978b". His papers were also compiled and released as "philosophical papers". The London School of Economics would introduce the Lakatos Award in 1986 which is awarded to candidates that have made significant contributions to the philosophy of science. -
Lakatos BBC Radio talk 1973
Below is a link to a recording of a talk that Lakatos gave on the BBC in 1973 on science and pseudoscience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FzaQS4noAA -
Bibliography
“Who Was Imre Lakatos? Everything You Need to Know.” Edited by TheFamousPeople.com, Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline, Nov. 2016, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/imre-lakatos-6095.php.
