Mario Bunge

Mario Augusto Bunge (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore Interview with Bunge in which the interviewer gives a pronunciation of his name.</ref> Template:IPA; September 21, 1919 – February 24, 2020) was an Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist. His philosophical writings combined scientific realism, systemism, materialism, emergentism, and other principles.

He was an advocate of "exact philosophy"<ref name=Bunge2016>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp and a critic of existentialist, hermeneutical, phenomenological philosophy, and postmodernism.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp He was popularly known for his opinions against pseudoscience.

Early and personal life

Bunge was born on September 21, 1919, in Florida Oeste, Buenos Aires.<ref name="Festschrift 2019"/>Template:Rp His mother, Marie Herminie Müser, was a German nurse who left Germany just before the beginning of World War I.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp His father, Augusto Bunge, also of some German descent, was an Argentine physician and socialist legislator.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp Mario, who was the couple's only child, was raised without any religious education, and enjoyed a happy and stimulating childhood in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp

Bunge had four children: Carlos Federico and Mario Augusto Julio, with ex-wife Julia Delfina Molina y Vedia,<ref name="Julia"/> and Eric R. and Silvia A., with his wife of over 60 years, the Argentine mathematician Marta Cavallo.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp Mario lived with Cavallo in Montreal from 1966 until his death, with one-year sabbaticals in other countries.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp

Studies and career

Bunge began his studies at the National University of La Plata, graduating with a PhD in physico-mathematical sciences in 1952.<ref name="GF"/> He was professor of theoretical physics and philosophy, 1956–1966, first at La Plata then at University of Buenos Aires.<ref name="GF"/> His international debut was at the 1956 Inter-American Philosophical Congress in Santiago, Chile. He was particularly noticed there by Willard Van Orman Quine, who called Bunge the star of the congress.Template:R He was, until his retirement at age 90, the Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at McGill University in Montreal, where he had been since 1966.<ref name="MG">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="UO">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="GF">Template:Cite web</ref>

In a review of Bunge's 2016 memoirs, Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist,<ref name=Bunge2016/> James Alcock saw in Bunge "a man of exceedingly high confidence who has lived his life guided by strong principles about truth, science, and justice" and one who is "[impatient] with muddy thinking".<ref name="Alcock"/>

He became a centenarian in September 2019. A Festschrift was published to mark the occasion, with essays by an international collection of scholars.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He died in Montreal, Canada, on February 24, 2020, at the age of 100.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Political views

Bunge defined himself as a left-wing liberal and democratic socialist, in the tradition of John Stuart Mill and José Ingenieros.<ref name=Bunge2016/>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which advocates for democratic reform in the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Work

Philosophy

Bunge was a prolific intellectual, having written more than 400 papers and 80 books, notably his monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy in eight volumes (1974–1989), a comprehensive and rigorous study of those philosophical aspects Bunge takes to be the core of modern philosophy: semantics, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of science and ethics.<ref name="GF"/> In his Treatise, Bunge developed a comprehensive scientific outlook which he then applied to the various natural and social sciences.

His work is based on global systemism, emergentism, rationalism, scientific realism, materialism and consequentialism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bunge repeatedly and explicitly denied being a logical positivist,<ref>Template:Harvnb: "... mainly because of the vulgar confusion between scientism and positivism, I am often regarded as a positivist despite my many criticisms of positivism. ... When [Gino] Germani invited me to take part in the panel for the conference on science and positivism that he had organized, I assaulted positivism and thus provoked Gino's anger. I had not realized that, in that milieu, positivism was confused with scientism. ... I had read some of the genuine positivists, from Comte, Mach and Duhem to Reichenbach, Carnap and Philipp Rank, and had thoroughly criticized their attempt to interpret physics in anthropocentric terms, from sensation to measurement."</ref> and wrote on metaphysics.<ref>See, for example, volumes 3 and 4 of his Treatise on Basic Philosophy.</ref>

A variety of scientists and philosophers influenced his thought. Among those thinkers, Bunge explicitly acknowledged the direct influence of his own father, the Argentine physician Augusto Bunge, the Czech physicist Guido Beck, the Argentine mathematician Alberto González Domínguez, the Argentine mathematician, physicist and computer scientist Manuel Sadosky, the Italian sociologist and psychologist Gino Germani, the American sociologist Robert King Merton, and the French-Polish epistemologist Émile Meyerson.<ref name=Bunge2016/>

Among many frameworks that Bunge proposed was a five-stage model of the maturation of science from immature Template:Em to mature Template:Em: see Template:Slink.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Popularly, he is known for his remarks considering psychoanalysis as an example of pseudoscience.<ref>For example: Template:Cite journal See also: Template:Cite book</ref> He was critical of the ideas of well known scientists and philosophers such as Karl Popper, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and Daniel Dennett.<ref name="Alcock">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Bunge appreciated some aspects of Popper's critical rationalism but found it insufficient as a comprehensive philosophy of science,<ref>See, for example:

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John R. Wettersen, who defined "critical rationalism" more broadly than Popper's work, called Bunge's theory of science "a version of critical rationalism".<ref>Template:Cite IEP</ref>

Philosophy of social sciences

Bunge addressed issues of theory and method in the social sciences starting with his Treatise on Basic Philosophy and later in his career wrote two books entirely focused on the social sciences: Finding Philosophy in Social Science (1996) and Social Science under Debate: A Philosophical Perspective (1998). In these works he argued for an approach to the study of societies that he called systemism, an alternative to holism and individualism. He was an advocate for what he called mechanismic explanations and defended the view that social mechanisms are processes "in a concrete system, such that it is capable of bringing about or preventing some change in the system as a whole or in some of its subsystems".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Awards

Bunge was the recipient of many awards throughout his career.<ref name="Festschrift 2019"/>Template:Rp

• Guggenheim Fellowship (1971)
• The Premio Príncipe de Asturias (Prince of Asturias Award) for Communication and Humanities (1982)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1984)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1992)
• The Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award in Complexity Thinking (2014)<ref name="Festschrift 2019"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bunge was also distinguished with twenty-one honorary doctorates and four honorary professorships by universities from both the Americas and Europe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He is in the "Science Hall of Fame"<ref name="Festschrift 2019">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp featured in Science in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Selected publications

• 1959. Causality: The Place of the Causal Principle in Modern Science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Fourth edition, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2009.)
• 1960. La ciencia, su método y su filosofía. Buenos Aires: Eudeba. (In French: La science, sa méthode et sa philosophie. Paris: Vigdor, 2001, Template:ISBN.)
• 1962. Intuition and Science. Prentice-Hall. (In French: Intuition et raison. Paris: Vigdor, 2001, Template:ISBN.)
• 1963. The Myth of Simplicity: Problems of Scientific Philosophy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• 1967. Scientific Research: Strategy and Philosophy. Volume 1: The Search for System. Volume 2: The Search for Truth. Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag. Revised and reprinted as Philosophy of Science, 2 Vols. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998.
• 1967. Foundations of Physics. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag.
• 1973. Method, Model, and Matter. Dordrecht: Reidel.
• 1973. Philosophy of Physics. Dordrecht: Reidel.
• 1977. "Emergence and the Mind", Neuroscience 2(4), 501–509.
• 1980. The Mind-Body Problem. Oxford: Pergamon.
• 1981. Scientific Materialism. Dordrecht: Reidel.
• 1983. "Demarcating Science from Pseudoscience", Fundamenta Scientiae 3: 369–388.
• 1984. "What is Pseudoscience?", The Skeptical Inquirer 9: 36–46.
• 1987. Philosophy of Psychology (with Rubén Ardila). New York: Springer.
• 1987. "Why Parapsychology Cannot Become a Science", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10: 576–577.
• 1988. Ciencia y desarrollo. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veinte.
• 1974–89. Treatise on Basic Philosophy:<ref>Bunge's Treatise on Basic Philosophy stands as his major achievement. It encompasses a quadrivium which he considers "the nucleus of contemporary philosophy", namely, semantics (theories of meaning and truth), ontology (general theories of the world), epistemology (theories of knowledge), and ethics (theories of value and right action). For approximately two decades, Bunge engaged in writing his magnum opus to investigate and synthesize contemporary philosophy in a single grand system that is compatible with the advancement of modern human knowledge both scientifically and philosophically. Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Semantics (I & II), Ontology (III–IV), Epistemology and Methodology (V–VII) Axiology and Ethics (VIII). All of these 8 volumes in 9 parts are currently in print, available under the Springer-Verlag imprint.</ref> 8 volumes in 9 parts:
  • I: Semantics I: Sense and Reference. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1974.
  • II: Semantics II: Interpretation and Truth. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1974.
  • III: Ontology I: The Furniture of the World. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1977.
  • IV: Ontology II: A World of Systems. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1979.
  • V: Epistemology and Methodology I: Exploring the World. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983.
  • VI: Epistemology and Methodology II: Understanding the World. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983.
  • VII: Epistemology and Methodology III: Philosophy of Science and Technology: Part I. Formal and Physical Sciences. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1985. Part II. Life Science, Social Science and Technology. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1985.
  • VIII: Ethics: the Good and the Right. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1989.
• 1996. Finding Philosophy in Social Science. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• 1996. "Is Religious Education Compatible with Science Education?" (with Martin Mahner), Science & Education 5(2), 101–123.
• 1997. Foundations of Biophilosophy (with Martin Mahner). New York: Springer.
• 1997. "Mechanism and Explanation", Philosophy of the Social Sciences 27(4), 410–465.
• 1998. Dictionary of Philosophy. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
• 1998. Elogio de la curiosidad. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana.
• 1998. Social Science under Debate: A Philosophical Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• 1999. The Sociology–Philosophy Connection. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
• 2001. Philosophy in Crisis: The Need for Reconstruction. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
• 2001. Scientific Realism: Selected Essays of Mario Bunge. Edited by Martin Mahner. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
• 2003. Emergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• 2004. "How Does It Work? The Search for Explanatory Mechanisms", Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34(2), 182–210.
• 2004. Über die Natur der Dinge. Materialismus und Wissenschaft (with Martin Mahner). Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag.
• 2006. Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• 2009. Political Philosophy: Fact, Fiction, and Vision. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
• 2010. Matter and Mind: A Philosophical Inquiry. New York: Springer.
• 2012. Evaluating Philosophies. New York: Springer.
• 2012. "Does Quantum Physics Refute Realism, Materialism and Determinism?", Science & Education 21(10): 1601–1610.
• 2013. Medical Philosophy: Conceptual Issues in Medicine. New Jersey: World Scientific Publishing Company.
• 2016. Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher–Scientist. New York: Springer.
• 2017. Doing Science: In the Light of Philosophy. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company.
• 2018. From a Scientific Point of View: Reasoning and Evidence Beat Improvisation across Fields. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars.

See also

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• List of people from Montreal
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Further reading

• Agassi, Joseph and Robert S. Cohen (eds.). 1982. Scientific Philosophy Today: Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge. Reidel.
• Denegri, Guillermo and Gladys E. Martínez (2000). Tópicos actuales en filosofía de la ciencia. Homenaje a Mario Bunge en su 80º aniversario. Mar del Plata, Editorial Martín.
• Marone, Luis and Rafael González del Solar (2000). "Homenaje a Mario Bunge, o por qué las preguntas en Ecología deberían comenzar con 'por qué'". In Denegri, Guillermo and Gladys E. Martínez (2000). Tópicos actuales en filosofía de la ciencia. Homenaje a Mario Bunge en su 80º aniversario. Mar del Plata, Editorial Martín. pp. 153–178.
• Matthews, Michael R. (ed.). 2019. Mario Bunge: Centenary Festschrift. New York: Springer.
• Serroni-Copello, Raúl (1989). Encuentros con Mario Bunge. Asociación de Investigaciones en Psicología.
• Vacher, Laurent-Michel (1993). Entretiens avec Mario Bunge. Montreal, Liber.
• VV.AA. (2003). Congreso-homenaxe internacional a Mario Bunge. Mos (Galicia), Grupo Aletheia. [Includes articles in Spanish by M. Bunge (Inverse problems), J. Aracil (MB and systems theory), A. Barceló (Philosophy and economics: three Bungen notions), I, Morgado (Brain, mind and philosophy), J. Mosterín (Biographical sketch of MB), M. A. Quintanilla (Instrumental rationality) y Héctor Vucetich (Quantum mechanics and realism), and in English by M. Mahner (M. Bunge's philosophy of biology)].
• Weingartner, Paul and George J. W. Dorn (eds.). 1990. Studies on Mario Bunge's Treatise. Amsterdam, Atlanta, Rodopi.

External links

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