Lakatos' political reawakening

Lee Congdon

pp. 339-349

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

Abstract

For approximately his first ten years in England, Imre Lakatos held aloof from direct involvement in politics, though he remained convinced that there was an "analogy between political ideologies and scientific theories."¹ A valid scientific theory might therefore pave the way for a responsible political ideology. But he was no hurry to explore that possible connection. After his shameful — or to his mind, misguided — activities as a communist in Hungary,² he was quite willing to limit himself to scientific work and the pursuit of women. Indeed, for Lakatos the two activities went hand in hand; in 1958, when his marriage to Éva Pap was failing, he confided to his father that he couldn't work without love.³

Cited authors

Lakatos Imre