Mathematics, Science and Epistemology

by Imre Lakatos , Edited by John Worrall , Gregory Currie

• ISBN13: 9780521280303
• ISBN10: 0521280303
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1980-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Imre Lakatos' philosophical and scientific papers are published here in two volumes. Volume I brings together his very influential but scattered papers on the philosophy of the physical sciences, and includes one important unpublished essay on the effect of Newton's scientific achievement. Volume 2 presents his work on the philosophy of mathematics (much of it unpublished), together with some critical essays on contemporary philosophers of science and some famous polemical writings on political and educational issues.

Table of Contents

Editors' introduction

Part I. Philosophy of Mathematics: 1. Infinite regress and foundations of mathematics

2. A renaissance of empiricism in the recent philosophy of mathematics?

3. Cauchy and the continuum: the significance of non-standard analysis for the history and philosophy of mathematics

4. What does a mathematical proof prove?

5. The method of analysis-synthesis

Part II. Critical Papers: 6. The problem of appraising scientific theories: three approaches

7. Necessity, Kineale and Popper

8. Changes in the problem of inductive logic

9. On Popperian historiography

10. Anomalies versus 'crucial experiments'

11. Understanding Toulmin

Part III. Science and Education: 12. A letter to the director of the London School of Economics

13. The teaching of the history of science

14. The social responsibility of science

References

Lakatos bibliography

Indexes.