Lakatos Award

The Lakatos Award is given annually for a contribution to the philosophy of science which is widely interpreted as outstanding. The contribution must be in the form of a book published in English during the previous six years.

The Award is in memory of Imre Lakatos and has been endowed by the Latsis Foundation. It is administered by the following committee:

*The Director of the London School of Economics (Chairman)
*Professor John Worrall (Convenor)
*Professor Hans Albert
*Professor Nancy Cartwright
*Professor Adolf Grünbaum
*Professor Philip Kitcher
*Professor Alan Musgrave
*Professor Michael Redhead

The Committee makes the Award on the advice of an independent and anonymous panel of selectors. The value of the Award is £10,000.

To take up an Award a successful candidate must visit the LSE and deliver a public lecture.

Winners

The Award has so far been won by:

;1986 - Bas Van Fraassen :for "The Scientific Image" (1980);and Hartry Field:for "Science Without Numbers" (1980);1987 - Michael Friedman:for "Foundations of Space-Time Theories";and Philip Kitcher:for "Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature";1988 - Michael Redhead:for "Incompleteness, Nonlocality and Realism";1989 - John Earman:for "A Primer on Determinism";1991 - Elliott Sober:for "Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Interference";1993 - Peter Achinstein :for "Particles and Waves: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Science" (1991);and Alexander Rosenberg :for "Economics--Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns?" (1992);1994 - Michael Dummett;1995 - Lawrence Sklar:for "Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics";1996 - Abner Shimony:for "The Search for a Naturalistic World View" (1993);1998 - Jeffrey Bub :for "Interpreting the Quantum World";and Deborah Mayo:for "Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge";1999 - Brian Skyrms:for "Evolution of the Social Contract" (1996) on modelling 'fair', non self-interested human actions using (cultural) evolutionary dynamics ( [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/lakatosaward_archive/Lecture1999.htm] );2001 - Judea Pearl:for "Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference" (2000) on causal models and causal reasoning ( [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/lakatosaward_archive/LakatosAward2001LectureFlyer.htm] );2002 - Penelope Maddy:for "Naturalism in Mathematics" (1997) on the issue of how the axioms of set theory are justified ( [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/lakatosaward_archive/LakatosAward2002announcement.htm] );2003 - Patrick Suppes:for "Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures" (2002) on axiomatising a wide range of scientific theories in terms of set theory ( [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/lakatosaward_archive/LakatosAward2003announcement.htm] );2004 - Kim Sterelny:for "Thought in a Hostile World: The Evolution of Human Cognition" (2003) on the idea that thought is a response to threat ( [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/LakatosAward2004.htm] );2005 - James Woodward :for "Making Things Happen" (2003) on causality and explanation;2006 - Harvey Brown:for "Physical Relativity: Space-time Structure from a Dynamical Perspective" (2005);and Hasok Chang:for "Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress" (2004)

External links

* [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/Default.htm The Lakatos Award website at the LSE]