ABSTRACT
A research programme ‘consists of methodological rules: some tell us what paths of research to avoid … , and others what paths to pursue’ (Lakatos, 1968, p. 132). The result of following such rules is a sequence of theories, ‘T1, T2, T3 … where each subsequent theory results from adding auxiliary clauses to … the previous theory in order to accommodate some anomaly’ (Lakatos, 1968, p. 118). By technical innovations and dedicated research, nineteenth-century scientists successfully explained an impressive array of bacterial diseases; each success could be regarded as yielding a new member in a Lakatosian sequence of bacterial theories of disease. A set of basic assumptions such as Klebs’ Grundversuche was common to all such theories.
