On several occasions Lakatos has stated explicitly that his own conception of the philosophy of science developed gradually through a critical reflection on inductivism, conventionalism, critical rationalism, and Kuhn's conception of science. Lakatos"point of departure is to be found in Popper's critical rationalism which he tried to improve. In so doing he hoped to be able to overcome two rationality gaps which he thought to be inherent in Kuhn's conception of science.