A Review of Lakatos’s Rational Progress Theory on Rationality of Science

Abstract

Abstract: The rationality of science is debated by contemporary and recent philosophers, and the debate turned vibrant in Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend. Lakatos’s rational progress theory adopts the best parts of Pooper’s hypo-deductive method and Kuhn’s revolutionary approaches to provide a comprehensive framework of justification of science. By designing negative and positive heuristics for scientific rationality, he refutes Humean scepticism that proven knowledge is an untenable ideal. The paper objects “anything goes” principle concerning scientific progress and argues that Lakatos’s framework is a better approach to scientific research and progress, and demonstrates the justification of scientific theories if triangulation, internal justification, and external verification are considered integral parts of scientific rationality.