Description
Book SynopsisPresenting a reconstruction of ideas from the history of philosophy, science, and mathematics, this work shows that embedded in Lakatos's work is a historical philosophy rooted in his Hungarian past. It reveals that he introduced transformations of Hegelian and Marxist ideas about historiography, skepticism, criticism, and rationality.
Trade Review“I have rarely encountered a book with as many fresh and arresting ideas from so many seemingly disparate intellectual and historical contexts. With wit, verve, and concision, Kadvany combines an impressive command of the traditions of philosophy, science, mathematics, and economic theory with an impassioned and insightful mastery of the history of Hungary during the Communist era.”—Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley
“Not merely a uniquely insightful account of the life and work of one of this century’s most original philosophers, this book provides a glimpse of a vanished intellectual world, that of Middle Europe before the catastrophes. Finding Georg Lukács and Hegel in Lakatos does more than elucidate Lakatos’s thought; it provides us with an entry to a whole different intellectual style. As interpreted by Kadvany, Lakatos functions as a sort of Rosetta Stone to that brilliant but now quite foreign intellectual culture. A brilliant tour de force.”—Jerome Ravetz, author of
Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems“An important contribution to the literature on Lakatos. It provides significant insights into the background, nature, import and implications of Lakatos’ thought. . . .The most important book that has appeared on Lakatos’ work to date, and it contains much that is novel and of real interest and importance to philosophers and mathematicians. Every university library should have a copy.” -- Paul Ernest * Mathematical Reviews *
“Extremely stimulating . . . . It should provoke a reevaluation of Lakatos’s work (especially on the history of mathematics), providing an answer to anyone who regards it as philosophically naive. It may also provide a route whereby those for whom German philosophy has been a largely closed book can begin to understand something of Hegel.” -- Roger E. Backhouse * History of Political Economy *
"Challenging and appealing. . . . Kadvany’s analysis is rich, broad, and articulated. . . . The book is well written, eminently readable, and stands out as a major contribution between the boundaries of continental and Anglo-American philosophy of science and mathematics."
-- Matteo Motterlini * Philosophia Mathematica *
"In
Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason, John Kadvany demonstrates the overwhelming importance of Lakatos's Hungarian background, and thereby also explains and illuminates Lakatos's philosophy. Kadvany's exposition does much to clarify and explain Lakatos's philosophy, thereby enhancing his reputation and also making his work, much of it still of vital significance, more accessible to a new public." -- Jerome R. Ravetz * Inquiry *
Table of ContentsAnalytic Contents
Preface
I. A Mathematical Bildungsroman
1. The Mathematical Present as History
2. The Method of Proofs and Refutations
3. Mathematical Skepticism
4. Between Formal and Informal
5. Reason Inverted
II. A Changing Logic of Scientific Discovery
6. Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos
7. An Historiographical Toolkit
8. Contradiction and Hindsight
9. Reason in History
10. A Changing Logic
11. Classical Political Economy as a Research Programme
III. Magyarország / Hungary
12. Hungary 1956 and the Inverted World
Notes
Bibliography
