Mario Augusto Bunge (; ; September 21, 1919 – February 24, 2020) was an Argentine-Canadian philosopher and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. His philosophical writings combined

scientific realism Scientific realism is the view that the universe described by science is real regardless of how it may be interpreted. Within philosophy of science, this view is often an answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" Th ...

, systemism, materialism, emergentism, and other principles. He was an advocate of "exact philosophy" and a critic of

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

, hermeneutical, phenomenological philosophy, and postmodernism. He was popularly known for his opinions against

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...

Biography

Bunge was born on September 21, 1919, in Florida Oeste, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His mother, Marie Herminie Müser, was a German nurse who left Germany just before the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. His father, Augusto Bunge, also of some German descent, was an Argentinian physician and socialist legislator. 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. Bunge had four children: Carlos F. and Mario A. J. (with ex-wife Julia), and Eric R. and Silvia A., with his wife of over 60 years, the Argentinian mathematician

Marta Cavallo Marta Cavallo Bunge (1938 – 25 October 2022) was an Argentine-Canadian mathematician specializing in category theory, and known for her work on synthetic calculus of variations and synthetic differential topology. She was a professor emeritus at ...

. Mario lived with Marta in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

since 1966, with one-year sabbaticals in other countries.

Studies and career

Bunge began his studies at the

National University of La Plata The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90 ...

, graduating with a PhD in physico-mathematical sciences in 1952. He was professor of

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

and philosophy, 1956–1966, first at La Plata then at

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

. His international debut was at the 1956 Inter-American Philosophical Congress in Santiago, Chile. He was particularly noticed there by

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...

, who called Bunge the star of the congress. He was, until his retirement at age 90, the Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

, where he had been since 1966. In a review of Bunge's 2016 memoirs, ''Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist'',

James Alcock James E. Alcock (born 24 December 1942) is a Canadian educator. He has been a Professor of Psychology at York University (Canada) since 1973. Alcock is a noted critic of parapsychology and is a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council for the C ...

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 " mpatientwith muddy thinking". He became a

centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100 years, the term is invariably associated with longevity. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centen ...

in September 2019. A ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' was published to mark the occasion, with essays by an international collection of scholars. He died in Montreal, Canada, on February 24, 2020, at the age of 100.

Politics

Bunge defined himself as a left-wing liberal and

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

, in the tradition of John Stuart Mill and

José Ingenieros José Ingenieros (born Giuseppe Ingegnieri, April 24, 1877October 31, 1925) was an Argentine physician, pharmacist, positivist philosopher and essayist. He was born in Palermo (Italy), and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School ...

. 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.

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 Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...

and ethics. In his ''Treatise'', Bunge developed a comprehensive

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

outlook which he then applied to the various natural and social sciences. His work is based on global systemism, emergentism,

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy ...

, materialism and

consequentialism In ethical philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, fro ...

. Bunge repeatedly and explicitly denied being a logical positivist, and wrote on

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

. 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 Alberto González Domínguez (11 April 1904 in Buenos Aires – 14 September 1982 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine mathematician working on analysis, probability theory and quantum field theory. González Domínguez received his Ph.D. from the ...

, 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 Émile Meyerson (; 12 February 1859 – 2 December 1933) was a Polish-born French epistemologist, chemist, and philosopher of science. Meyerson was born in Lublin, Poland. He died in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 74. Biography Meyerso ...

. Popularly, he is known for his remarks considering

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

as an example of

. He was critical of the ideas of well known scientists and philosophers such as Karl Popper, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and Daniel Dennett. Bunge appreciated some aspects of Popper's critical rationalism but found it insufficient as a comprehensive philosophy of science, and instead formulated his own account of

. John R. Wettersen, who defined "critical rationalism" more broadly than Popper's work, called Bunge's theory of science "a version of critical rationalism".

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".

Awards

Bunge was the recipient of many awards throughout his career. * Guggenheim Fellowship (1971) * The ''Premio Príncipe de Asturias'' (

Prince of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...

) 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 Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, app ...

Award in Complexity Thinking (2014) Bunge was also distinguished with twenty-one honorary doctorates and four honorary professorships by universities from both the Americas and Europe. He is in the " Science Hall of Fame" featured in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'' in 2011.

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, .) * 1962. ''Intuition and Science''. Prentice-Hall. (In French: ''Intuition et raison''. Paris: Vigdor, 2001, .) * 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'':Bunge's ''Treatise on Basic Philosophy'' stands as his major achievement. It encompasses a quadrivium which he considers "the nucleus of contemporary philosophy", namely,

(theories of meaning and truth),

(general theories of the world),

(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. 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.

References

External links

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