Philosophy of Science Colloquium, J. K a d v a n y

Department of HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Eotvos University, Budapest Pazmany P. setany 1/A Budapest Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924 Department's Home Page:http://hps.elte.hu P h i l o s o p h y o f S c i e n c e C o l l o q u i u m Room 6.54 (6th floor) Monday 4:00 PM ____________________________________ 14 April 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54 J o h n K a d v a n y <mailto:KADVANY@aol.com> Policy and Decision Science, Menlo Park, CA From Hegel to Lakatos: Historical Method in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Science During his career, and since his death in 1974, some noticed latent Hegelian ideas in Imre Lakatos? approach to combining philosophy and history in his theories of mathematical and scientific method. This talk explains the importance of Lakatos? Hegelianism in his masterpiece on mathematical method, Proofs and Refutations, and in his methodology of scientific research programmes. Topics to be discussed include: the historiography of Proofs and Refutations and Hegel?s Phenomenology of Spirit; pedagogical philosophy in Hegel and Lakatos; skepticism in nineteenth-century mathematics; the history of Gödel?s Second Incompleteness Theorem; Lakatos? ?changing logic? of scientific discovery; classical political economy as a research programme; research programmes and criticism of scientific practice; and the continuity of Lakatos? ideas with those of Georg Lukács. The talk summarizes the philosophical content of my book, Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason (Duke University Press 2001). ---------------------------------- On Wednesday April 16, I will give a talk titled "Lakatos, Hegel, Hungary" at the Central European University. That talk will present Lakatos' work and life in the context of Hungarian Stalinism and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. _____________________________________________ Biographical statement for John Kadvany: http://hps.elte.hu/seminar/2003/April/kadvany_biog.html _____________________________________________ The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 10-minute break. Then we held a 30-60-minute discussion.The participants may comment the talks and initiate discussion on the Internet. The comments should be written in the language of the presentation. The organizer of the colloquium: Laszlo E. Szabo (email: leszabo(a)hps.elte.hu) -- Laszlo E. Szabo Department of Theoretical Physics Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924 Home: (36-1) 200-7318 Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172 http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo