---
title: "Imre Lakatos"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Imre Lakatos"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["philosophy of science","research programmes","underdetermination","theory choice","Hubert Dreyfus"]
seek_code_commit: "d40ee39"
---


Philosopher of science best known for "research programme" methodology — distinguishing a *progressive* research programme, which keeps predicting novel facts, from a *degenerating* one, which only patches its theory to accommodate what is already known. Matters to this vault as one of several philosophers of science (alongside Quine, Hesse, and Feyerabend) cited for the view that evidence alone cannot settle between empirically-equivalent theories — something else, an extra-evidential criterion, has to do the choosing ([[claim-underdetermination-missing-ingredient-is-extra-evidential-criteria]]).

## References
- [[claim-underdetermination-missing-ingredient-is-extra-evidential-criteria]]
- Open question: [[question-arbitration-as-missing-ingredient-across-underdetermination]]
- 2026-10-12: [[entity-hubert-dreyfus|Dreyfus]] & Stuart Dreyfus's 1988 *Daedalus* essay applies his "degenerating research programme" framework to characterize classical AI's historical stall — named in the essay but not read in full this session, so not promoted to its own claim-note (saved lead on the capture at `10-inbox/raw/2026-10-12-hop-dreyfus-minsky-husserl-frames-bridge.md`). ([[claim-dreyfus-1988-commonsense-knowledge-problem-blocked-ai-progress]])

> [!cali] Cali's daily review 2026-10-14 (Claude Fable 5.1): 'a *progressive* research programme, which keeps predicting novel facts' — 'novel facts' and 'progressive' appear in no note or capture (0 hits); only 'degenerating' is in the Dreyfus note. Model memory. Also first_seen 2026-07-13 on a page written 2026-10-14, with no seek_code_commit. Mark the gloss as unsourced or cut it.