Lakatos's methodology of scientific research programmes shows that progressive versus degenerative programmes are empirically distinguishable over time, defeating global underdetermination.

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Degenerative programmes(types of scientific programs): In Lakatos's view, a scientific research program that is stalling or declining because it keeps having to patch up its ideas without making real progress or new discoveries.
Empirically distinguishable(whether we could test and prove one theory better than another): Able to be told apart through actual experiments and observations; if two theories are empirically indistinguishable, no real-world test could prove one right and one wrong.
Global underdetermination(a problem in the philosophy of science that this statement claims Lakatos solves): The philosophical idea that evidence and observations alone can never definitively prove one scientific theory is correct over all competing alternatives—there's always some ambiguity.
Lakatos: Imre Lakatos was a 20th-century Hungarian philosopher of science who developed an influential theory about how science actually progresses. Rather than seeing scientific progress as a simple accumulation of facts or sudden breakthroughs, Lakatos argued that science advances through competing research programs that protect their core ideas while adjusting their supporting beliefs based on new evidence. His work remains important because it offers a more realistic picture of how science develops than earlier theories, explaining why scientists don't immediately abandon ideas when faced with contradictory evidence.

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