In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts

Indeed, this epistemological theory of the relation between theory and experiment differs sharply from the epistemological theory of naive falsificationism.

Man's respect for knowledge is one of his most peculiar characteristics. Knowledge in Latin is scientia, and science came to be the name of the most respectable kind of knowledge.

One may rationally stick to a degenerating research programme until it is overtaken by a rival and even after. What one must not do is to deny its poor public record... It is perfectly rational to play a risky game: what is irrational is to deceive oneself about the risk.

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.

The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever.

There is no falsification before the emergence of a better theory.