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APPRAISING LAKATOS VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE LIBRARY [2002] 1 Institut Wiener Kreis Society for the Advancement of the Scientific World Conception Series-Editor: Friedrich Stadler Director, lnstitut Wiener Kreis and University of Vienna, Austria Advisory Editorial Board: Helga Nowotny, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Nancy Cartwright, London School of Economics, Erhard Oeser, University of Vienna. Austria UK Joelle Proust, Ecole Polytechnique CREA Paris. Robert S. Cohen, Boston University. USA France Wilhelm K. Essler, University of Frankfurt/ M .. Alan Richardson, University of British Columbia, Germany CDN Kurt Rudolf Fischer, University of Vienna, Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Austria Austria Jan Sebestik, CNRS Paris. France Michael Friedman, University of Indiana, Karl Sigmund, University of Vienna, Austria Bloomington, USA Hans Sluga, University of California at Berkeley, Peter Galison, Harvard University, USA USA Adolf Gri.inbaum, University of Pittsburgh, USA Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin, USA Rudolf Haller, University of Graz, Austria, Antonia Soulez, Universite de Paris 8, France Rainer Hegselmann, University of Bayreuth. Wolfgang Spohn, University of Konstanz. Germany Germany Michael Heidelberger, University ofTubingen, Christian Thiel, University of Erlangen, Germany Germany Walter Thirri ng, University of Vienna, Austria Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University, USA Thomas E. Uebel, University of Manchester. UK Gerald Holton, Harvard Un iversity, USA Georg Winckler, University of Vienna, Austria Don Howard, University of Notre Dame, USA Ruth Wodak, University of Vienna, Austria Allan S. Janik, University of lnnsbruck. Austria Jan Wolenski, Jagiel/onian University. Cracmr. Richard Jeffrey, Princeton University, USA Poland Andreas Kamiah, University of Osnabruck, Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Austria Germany Eckehart Kohler, University of Vienna, Austria Anne J. Kox, University of Amsterdam, Associate Editor: The Netherlands Michael Stiiltzner Saul A. Kripke, Prince/On University, USA Elisabeth Leinfellner, University of Vienna. Aus tria Editorial Address: Werner Leinfellner, Technical University of Institut Wiener Kreis Vienna. Austria Museumstrasse 512119, A-1070 Wien, Austria James G. Lennox, University of Pittsburgh. USA Tel.: +431 15261005 (international) Brian McGuinness, University of Siena, Italy or 0 I I 5261005 (national) Kevin Mulligan, Universite de Geneve, Fax.: +431 I 5248859 (international) Switzerland or 01 15248859 (national) Elisabeth Nemeth, University of Vienna, Austria email: i _v_c ~ r ' ping .a t Julian Nida-Riimelin. University ofGottingen. homepage: http: I live. philo.at Germany APPRAISING LAKATOS Mathematics, Methodology, and the Man Edited by GEORGE KAMPIS EO!vos University, Budapest LADISLAV KVASZ Comenius University, Bratislava MICHAELSTOLTZNER Institute Vienna Circle, Vienna University of Bielefeld SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. ISBN 978-90-481-5922-2 ISBN 978-94-017-0769-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-0769-5 Printed on acid-Fee paper Gedruckt mit Fiirderung des Osterreichischen Bundesministeriumsfiir Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur Printed with financial support of the Austrian Ministry f or Education, Science and Culture In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Zentrumfi'ir iibe1jakultiire Forschung der Universitiit Wien In cooperation with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Vienna All Rights Reserved © 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002 No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Lakatos in December 1954 (By kind permission of Eva Pap) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . .. .. .. .. IX I. IN DEFENCE OF SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY JOHN WATKINS, The Propositional Content of the Popper- Lakatos Rift .. .............. .. ...... ......................... .. ...... ... ..... ... .... ... 3 DONALD GILLIES, Lakatos' Criticisms of Popper ............................ .... 13 MATTEO MOTTERLINI, Professor Lakatos Between the Hegelian Devil and the Popperian Deep Blue Sea .............................. 23 MARTIN CARRIER, Explaining Scientific Progress: Lakatos' Methodological Account of Kuhnian Patterns of Theory Change .. .... 53 GABOR FORRAI, Lakatos, Reason and History ..................... ... .... ........ 73 JOHN WORRALL, "Heuristic Power" and the "Logic of Scientific Discovery": Why the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes is Less Than Half the Story . 85 PETER SZEGEDI, Lakatos on Crucial Experiments and the History of Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics ................ .. ......... 101 IJ. UNDERWAY TO A PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEMPORARY MATHEMATICS DAVID COR FIELD, Argumentation and the Mathematical Process ..... 115 THOMAS MORMANN, Towards an Evolutionary Account of Conceptual Change in Mathematics: Proofs and Refutations and the Axiomatic Variation of Concepts .............. ..... ...................... 139 MICHAEL STOLTZNER, What Lakatos Could Teach the Mathematical Physicist .. .... .... ............ .............. .......... ............. ......... !57 Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS TEUN KOETSIER, Lakatos' Mitigated Scepticism in the Philosophy of Mathematics ... ............... ........ 00 •• • 00 ••• 00 00 •••••• • 00 00 •• 00 00 ••• 00 189 LADISLAV KVASZ, Lakatos' Methodology Between Logic and Dialectic . .211 . OLGA KISS, Mathematical Heuristic - Lakatos and Poly a ................... 243 HANS-CHRISTIAN REICHEL, Lakatos and Aspects of Mathematics Education .............................. ........................... .......... 255 Ill. LIFE AND Pouncs JANCIS LONG, The Unforgiven: Imre Lakatos' Life in Hungary ....... ... 263 LASZLO ROPOLYI, Lakatos and Lukacs ...................... .. .. ................... 303 LEE CONGDON, Lakatos' Political Reawakening ....................... .......... 339 IV. IMRE LAKATOS' HUNGARIAN DISSERTATION A Documentation Arranged by Gabor Kutrovatz .. .... .. ...... ... ... ..... ......... 353 Lakatos' Hungarian Papers Between 1946- 1956 •oo ···· ··············oo·oo··········· 375 Index of Names ............................................. ............... .................. .. ...... 377 INTRODUCTION The present collection is the result of a cooperation between the Institute Vienna Circle and the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science of Eotvos University, Budapest, which was dedicated to the philosophy of science in the Austro-Hungarian context. Probably no other protagonist of 20th century philosophy of science fits better into such a framework than does Imre Lakatos (1922-1974). The book Proofs and Refutations which made him famous, declares itself as a continuation of Gyorgy P61ya's works on mathematical heuristics and plausible reasoning and, accordingly, stands in the eminent tradition of Hungarian mathematics. When Lakatos subse quently embarked upon general philosophy of science and developed his methodology of scientific research programs (henceforth MSR P), he became involved in at times heated debates with three offshoots and opponents of the Vienna Circle: Karl Popper, Thomas S. Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend. Before giving a short overview of the present volume, we shall briefly sketch this historical setting in order to illustrate the motivation of the Institute Vienna Circle to start its new book series with a volume on Imre Lakatos. After completing his Cambridge Ph.D. disseration in 1961, Lakatos came to the London School of Economics to work under Popper. He subsequently attempted to extend - though with nuances of his own -Critical Rationalism to mathematics. Seeking more and more an independent stance in the late 1960s, Lakatos' relationship with Popper developed into a thematic rift, culminating in personal tensions. Lakatos' recently published last lectures are quite telling in this respect. Nevertheless, both Lakatos and Popper stood side by side in struggling against the 'new epistemology' of the 1970s. While they emphasized the unavoidability of a criterion demarcating science and scientific rationality from non-science, the 'new epistemologists' - among them Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend became the most prominent - insisted on the indivisibility of the whole of scientific practice, in particular on the impact of societal factors, institutions, ideologies, etc., upon scientists and their research programs. They held that - even for philosophical purposes - the actual course of history could not be replaced by a rational reconstruction of history, and that there existed no methodology guarantee ing scientific success. Hence no absolute justification of scientific rationality could be reached. IX G. Kampis. L. Kvas: and M. S!oi!Zner (eds.), Appraising Lakalos: Ma!hemalics, Melhodo/ogy and !he Man, 1x- x1v. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. X INTRODUCTION During the last two decades, historical investigations into Logical Empiri cism have brought to the fore various historical facts pertaining to the battles waged during the 1960s and 1970s. On the one hand, Popper's relations with the Vienna Circle were much more complex than his claims to the effect that he had simply 'killed' Logical Positivism suggest; in particular, the Logic of Scientific Discovery played its part in the movement's discussions during the 1930s. Victor Kraft, who was, together with Bela