Professor Lakatos between the Hegelian devil and the Popperian deep blue sea

Matteo Motterlini

pp. 23-52

in: George Kampis, Ladislav Kvasz, Michael Stöltzner (eds), Appraising Lakatos, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

When Lakatos unexpectedly died in February 1974, Paul Feyerabend was invited to write an appreciation of his friend for the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. He portrayed Lakatos as "a fascinating person, an outstanding thinker and the best philosopher of science of this strange and uncomfortable century"; as "a rationalist, for he thought that man had the duty of using reason in his private affairs as well as in any enquiry concerning the relation between himself, nature, and his fellow men"; and as "an optimist, for he thought that reason was capable of solving most of the problems arising in the course of such an inquiry" (Feyerabend, 1975b, p. 1).

Cited authors

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Popper Karl

Feyerabend Paul