Imre Lakatos Quotes

Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one.

Science is a self-correcting discipline that can, in subsequent generations, show that previous ideas were not correct.

We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth.

Although scientists can often be as resistant to new ideas as anyone, the process of science ensures that, over time, good ideas and theories prevail.

Never abandon a theory that explains something until you have a theory that explains more.

True science is never speculative; it employs hypotheses as suggesting points for inquiry, but it never adopts the hypotheses as though they were demonstrated propositions.

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

Science is not a game in which arbitrary rules are used to decide what explanations are to be permitted.

Science is simply a powerful way of understanding what's real and what isn't, what's true and what's not. It can help us determine what works, what doesn't, for whom, and under what circumstances.

In science, each new result, sometimes quite surprising, heralds a step forward and allows one to discard some hypotheses, even though one or two of these might have been highly favored.

When the basic status of a theory is clear, and all that needs to be cleared are details, you can collaborate. But if the main structure of a hypothesis isn't established, and you want to change the paradigm - like it was the case in the 1960s - it's better to work alone.

Science isn't about authority or white coats; it's about following a method. That method is built on core principles: precision and transparency; being clear about your methods; being honest about your results; and drawing a clear line between the results, on the one hand, and your judgment calls about how those results support a hypothesis.

Science should always be in the business of attempting to disprove itself.

Scientific research involves going beyond the well-trodden and well-tested ideas and theories that form the core of scientific knowledge. During the time scientists are working things out, some results will be right, and others will be wrong. Over time, the right results will emerge.

In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.

In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons.

I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.

Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.

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.

The process of philosophic and scientific enlightenment has shaken the stability of beliefs held explicitly as articles of faith.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Scientists are always skeptics.

In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.

Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them.

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.