Imre Lakatos

Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind.

The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever.

The positive heuristic of the programme saves the scientist from becoming confused by the ocean of anomalies.

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.

If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power.

Einstein's results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge.

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.