Lakatos’ major works include Proofs and Refutations (1976), which is based on his doctoral dissertation, The Methodology of Scientific Research Programs: Philosophical Papers Volume 1, and Mathematics, Science and Epistemology: Philosophical Papers Volume 2 (1978).

Karl Popper (1902–1994) claimed that scientists ought to change their theories when they were falsified and that the hallmark of a scientific theory was its ability to be falsified. Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) believed that, in fact, many accepted scientific theories had plenty of known, falsifying data. The problem was that Kuhn’s account did not allow for progress in science, according to Popper’s criterion of falsification, and that Popper’s theory seemed to be unrealistic.