Pemikiran Imre Lakatos (1922-1974) tentang Metodologi Program Riset dan Signifikansinya dalam Kajian Keislaman

Apart from Kuhn and Popper, Lakatos has become an important figure in the field of Philosophy of Science for his scientific theories, which he calls research programmes. For Lakatos, Popper’s theoretical falsification can be immensely dangerous when applied to the already established theories. On the other hand, in contrast to Kuhn who assumed that a paradigm is by its nature immeasurable, Lakatos maintains that the competing scientific discoveries may in fact be compared between one another. To him, the main issues with regard to the logic of discovery cannot be dealt with satisfactorily unless we do so within the framework of research programmes. The practical implementation of this would be that the hard core of this framework cannot be subjected to modification -let alone- rejection. This hard core must in other words be protected from what he terms falsification. Lakatos also maintains that what can be said as scientific is a series of theory, and not a single theory. This model of research programmes can in fact be used in Islamic Studies in order to develop new theoretical principles that may play a role of convincing protective-belt on the one hand, and to find new premises whose discoveries can be used universally on the other