This influential book discusses the nature of mathematical discovery, development, methodology and practice, forming Imre Lakatos's theory of 'proofs and refutations'.

Imre Lakatos (1922-74) was one of the twentieth century's most prominent philosophers of science and mathematics, best known for his theory of the methodology of proof and refutation in mathematics.

Preface to this edition Paolo Mancosu; Editors' preface; Acknowledgments; Author's introduction; Part I: 1. A problem and a conjecture; 2. A proof; 3. Criticism of the proof by counterexamples which are local but not global; 4. Criticism of the conjecture by global counterexamples; 5. Criticism of the proof-analysis by counterexamples which are global but not local. The problem of rigour; 6. Return to criticism of the proof by counterexamples which are local but not global. The problem of content; 7. The problem of content revisited; 8. Concept-formation; 9. How criticism may turn mathematical truth into logical truth; Part II: Editors' introduction; Appendix 1. Another case-study in the method of proofs and refutations; Appendix 2. The deductivist versus the heuristic approach; Bibliography; Index of names; Index of subjects.