Abstract
Imre Lakatos encouraged his students (and I like to count myself one of them) to criticise his ideas. And while criticism was not always received with complete calm, one invariably learned something from the exercise. I well remember how, shortly after I had obtained my first degree, he deemed me totally illiterate and set about trying to remedy the situation. He bought me some mathematics books (I still have them), and sat me down in his office to solve problems. At the time he was writing ‘Proofs and Refutations’: I would pass my latest effort across to him, to be mercilessly exposed, and he would pass his latest page of manuscript across to me, expecting it to receive the same treatment He led me to believe that my exercises were just as important as his manuscript, and my modest improvements to his English just as important as his radical improvements to my mathematics. Both beliefs, were, of course, mistaken. But I shall always be grateful to him for having made me hold them.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Buck, R. and Cohen, R. S. (eds.), 1971, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 8, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland.
Clark, P., 1976, ‘Atomism versus Thermodynamics’. In Howson (ed.), (1976).
Clerke, A. M., 1885, A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century, Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh.
Cohen, I. B. (ed.), 1958, Isaac Newton’s Papers and Letters on Natural Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, London.
Feigl, H., 1971, ‘Research Programmes and Induction’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971), pp. 147–150.
Feyerabend, P. K., 1970, ‘Consolations for the Specialist’. In Lakatos and Musgrave (eds.) (1970), pp. 197–230.
Fontenrose, R., 1973, ‘In Search of Vulcan’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 4, 145–158.
Grant, R., 1852, History of Physical Astronomy, Henry G. Bone, London.
Grosser, M., 1962, The Discovery of Neptune, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Grünbaum, A., 1975, ‘Falsifiability and Rationality’, mimeographed.
Hall, R. J., 1971, ‘Can We Use the History of Science to Decide between Competing Methodologies?’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971), pp. 151–159.
Hanson, N. R., 1962, ‘Leverrier: The Zenith and Nadir of Newtonian Mechanics’, Isis 53, 359–378.
Hesse, M., 1966, Models and Analogies in Science, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana.
Howson, C, 1976, Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences: The Critical Background to Modem Physical Science. (Proceedings of the Nafplion Colloquium on Research Programmes in Physics and Economics, Vol. 1), Cambridge University Press, London.
Koertge, N., 1971, ‘Inter-Theoretic Criticism and the Growth of Science’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971), pp. 160–173.
Kuhn, T. S., 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science, Volume 2, number 2), Chicago University Press, Chicago (Second Edition, enlarged, 1970).
Kuhn, T. S., 1970a, ‘Logic of Discovery of Psychology of Research’. In Lakatos and Musgrave (eds.) (1970), pp. 1–21.
Kuhn, T. S., 1970b, ‘Reflections on my Critics’. In Lakatos and Musgrave (eds.) (1970), pp. 231–278.
Kuhn, T. S., 1971: ‘Notes on Lakatos’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971), pp. 137–146.
Lakatos, I., 1963–4, ‘Proofs and Refutations Parts I-IV, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 14, 1–25, 120–139, 221–245, 296–342.
Lakatos, I., 1968, ‘Changes in the Problem of Inductive Logic’. In Lakatos, I. (ed.) (1968), pp. 315–417.
Lakatos, I., 1970, ‘Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes’. In Lakatos and Musgrave (eds.) (1970), pp. 91–195.
Lakatos, I., 1971a, ‘History of Science and Its Rational Reconstructions’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971), pp. 91–136.
Lakatos, I., 1971b, ‘Replies to Critics’. In Buck and Cohen (eds.) (1971, pp. 174–182.
Lakatos, I., 1974, ‘The Role of Crucial Experiments in Science’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 4, 309–325.
Lakatos, I., 1975, ‘Anomalies versus “crucial experiments”. (A rejoinder to Professor Grünbaum)’. Mimeographed.
Lakatos, I., (ed.), 1968, The Problem of Inductive Logic (Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965, Vol. 2), North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A. (eds.), 1970, Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965, Vol. 4), Cambridge University Press, London.
Latsis, S. J., 1972, ‘Situational Determinism in Economics’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 23, 207–245.
Musgrave, A. E., 1971, ‘Kuhn’s Second Thoughts’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 22, 287–297.
Musgrave, A. E., 1973, ‘Falsification and Its Critics’. In Suppes, Henkin, Moisil and Joja (eds.) (1973), pp. 393–406.
Musgrave, A. E., 1974, ‘Logical versus Historical Theories of Confirmation’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25, 1–23.
Musgrave, A. E., 1976, ‘Why did Oxygen supplant Phlogiston? (Research Programmes in the Chemical Revolution)’. In Howson (ed.) (1976).
Newcomb, S., 1910a, ‘Gravitation’. In Encyclopaedia Brittanica, eleventh edition, Vol. XII, pp. 384–5, Cambridge University Press, London.
Newcomb, S., 1910b, ‘Mercury’. In Encyclopaedia Brittanica, eleventh edition, Vol. XVIII. pp. 154–5, Cambridge University Press, London.
Nichol, J. P., 1848, The Planet Neptune: an Exposition and History, John Johnstone, Edinburgh.
North, J. D., 1965, The Measure of the Universe: A History of Modern Cosmology, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Popper, K. R., 1967, ‘La Rationalité et le Statut du Principe de Rationalité’. In Les Fondements Philosophiques des Systèmes Economiques, Bibliothèque Economique et Politique, Payot, Paris.
Quinn, P., 1972, ‘Methodological Appraisal and Heuristic Advice: Problems in the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 3, 135–149.
Suppes, P., Henkin, L., Moisil, Gr. C, and Joja, A. (eds.) 1973, Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science IV (Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Bucharest, 1971), North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
Thackray, A., 1970, Atoms and Powers: An Essay on Newtonian Matter-Theory and the Development of Chemistry, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Truesdell, C, 1960, ‘The Program toward Rediscovering the Rational Mechanics in the Age of Reason’, Archive of the History of the Exact Sciences 1, 3–36.
Truesdell, C, 1967, ‘Reactions of Late Baroque Mechanics to Success, Conjecture, Error, and Failure in Newton’s Principia’, Texas Quarterly 10, 238–258.
Worrall, J., 1976, ‘Thomas Young and the “Refutation” of Newtonian Optics: A Case Study in How Philosophy of Science can solve Historical Problems’. In Howson (ed.) (1976).
Zahar, E. G., 1973, ‘Why did Einstein’s Programme supersede Lorentz’s?’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 24, 95–123 and 223–262.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1976 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Musgrave, A. (1976). Method or Madness?. In: Cohen, R.S., Feyerabend, P.K., Wartofsky, M.W. (eds) Essays in Memory of Imre Lakatos. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1451-9_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1451-9_27
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0655-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1451-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive