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.

Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind.

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

Einstein's results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge.

No experimental result can ever kill a theory: any theory can be saved from counterinstances either by some auxiliary hypothesis or by a suitable reinterpretation of its terms.

The positive heuristic of the programme saves the scientist from becoming confused by the ocean of anomalies.