We have the great pleasure to announce the latest winner of the 2023 Lakatos Award Michela Massimi, who won the prize for her book Perspectival Realism (Oxford University Press, 2022). The book is free to download Open Access and is available purchase as a print copy.

About the book

Perspectival Realism is praised by the selectors of the Lakatos Award as “a tour de force” that “presents a new philosophical framework for understanding how we come to know about particular phenomena”. It offers “unquestionably the best articulation of perspectival realism”, and in presenting her position Massimi “provides a much-needed philosophical articulation of the theory and also responses to the many objections it faces”. She sets “an agenda for new programs of research in the philosophy of science”, which “represents a significant reorientation of our thinking on a number of fronts, epistemic and ontological, opening new possibilities for inquiry going forward”. Her book is praised as “stuffed with erudition: great knowledge, wonderful examples, and a deep understanding of how science works”: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/perspectival-realism-9780197555620?cc=gb&lang=en&

About Michela Massimi

Michela Massimi is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Edinburgh, affiliated with the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics: https://www.michelamassimi.com/

Call for 2024 Lakatos Prize Nominations

We are also happy to announce the next round of nominations! Deadline: 1 September 2023.

The 2024 award will be for a monograph in the philosophy of science broadly construed, either single authored or co-authored, published in English with an imprint from 2018 to 2023, inclusive. Anthologies and edited collections are not eligible. Any person of recognised standing within the philosophy of science or an allied field may nominate a book. Nominations must include a statement explaining the nominator’s reasons for regarding the book prizeworthy. Self-nominations are not allowed.

Please address nominations, or any requests for further information, to the Award Administrator Tom Hinrichsen at T.A.Hinrichsen@lse.ac.uk

About the Lakatos Award

The Lakatos Award is given annually for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted, in the form of a book published in English during the current year or the previous five years. More about the award: https://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/lakatos-award/