Mario Bunge

Mario Bunge ( Greater Buenos Aires , September 21 , 1919 – Montreal , February 24 , 2020 ) was an Argentine physicist, philosopher of science and humanist; defender of scientific realism and exact philosophy. He was known for publicly expressing his position against pseudosciences , which includes psychoanalysis , homeopathy , neoclassical (or orthodox) microeconomics , among others, in addition to his criticisms against philosophical currents such as existentialism , phenomenology , postmodernism , hermeneutics and philosophical feminism .

Summary

[ disguise ]

• 1 Biographical summary
  • 1 Studies
  • 2 Work carried out
• 2 Works
• 3 Source

Biographical summary

Mario Bunge came from a German family related to Spaniards from the Basque country and Asturias , son of the doctor and socialist deputy Augusto Bunge and the nurse Maria Schreiber. Although related on his father’s side to a very influential family (creators of the Bunge and Born group, which later became a multinational holding company), he belonged to a modest branch, and spent much of his childhood in a semi-rural environment, even dedicating himself to agricultural tasks.

He attended primary school at El Niño Argentino Modelo.

In 1940 he married the architect Julia Molina y Vedia, much older than him, mother of his two oldest sons Mario (mathematician) and Carlos (physicist).

In 1943, when he was barely 18 years old, he founded a private institution, the UOA (Universidad Obrera Argentina), an institution where, for fees barely sufficient for maintenance, workers in different activities received technical and union training. The UOA was closed in 1943 by the Secretary of Labor and Welfare, Colonel Juan Domingo Perón , who five years later, as President of the Nation, made all the country’s universities free and state-run – instead, the first private university in Argentina (the anti-Peronist Catholic University of Córdoba) was founded during the anti-Peronist civil-military dictatorship (1956-1958) ―.

My forays into politics were all very brief, almost all misguided, including my participation in the Democratic Union, the anti-Peronist front [organized and paid for by the American embassy] in the 1946 presidential elections.

Mario Bunge ^[1]

Studies

After completing his secondary studies at the National College of Buenos Aires , Bunge began his studies at the National University of La Plata – 70 km southeast of the city of Buenos Aires. In 1944 he founded the magazine Minerva , in which he combined his dedication to science with his interest in philosophy. In 1952 (at age 32) he graduated with a doctorate in Physical-Mathematical Sciences. The topic of his doctoral thesis was on Relativistic Electron Kinematics . He studied Nuclear Physics at the Astronomical Observatory of Córdoba .

From 1956 he was a professor of theoretical physics and philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires , until 1963 – when, dissatisfied with the political climate of his country (after a string of military dictatorships and anti-Peronist civil tyrannies) – he made the decision to emigrate.

At the University of Buenos Aires, he was a professor of theoretical physics and philosophy from 1956 to 1966. For a few years he taught at universities in Mexico , the United States , and Germany .

For a few years he taught at universities in Mexico , the United States and Germany . Finally, in 1966 he settled in Montreal ( Canada ), where he taught at McGill University in the Frothingam Chair of Logic and Metaphysics. He was named professor emeritus of said university, in the areas of Metaphysics, Semantics, Philosophy of Science and Epistemology.

Work done

In 1962 he used to travel to Uruguay to give courses and on his return – within the framework of the anti-Peronist dictatorships and tyrannies (1955-1974) – they reviewed his personal papers to see if he brought subversive propaganda. The hand came very hard, and together with his wife they decided to accept the first academic invitation that was made to them, from the University of Delaware, in the United States, but there they found an intolerant environment: the university students are virulently in favor of the intervention. in Vietnam , discovering with perplexity that they only began to oppose when – years later – the Government began to recruit students.

In 1963 he went into exile, traveling through Europe and America , while teaching, taking up residence in Canada , and there he was a professor of Logic and Metaphysics at McGill University. He was founder of the Society for Exact Philosophy, from where he defended his ideas about scientific realism. He has an Honoris Causa degree from numerous European and American universities, a member of numerous scientific-philosophical societies, such as the Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences, and in 1982, he obtained the Prince of Asturias Prize in Communication and Humanities.

Bunge settled in Montreal in 1966, and his two children from his second marriage were born there: in 1966 Eric (architect) and in 1974 Silvia (neurophysiologist). Since then he has held the Frothingham Chair of Foundations and Philosophy of Science, where students from various disciplines converge. A declared enemy of exams, he promotes the formation of teams and the carrying out of research work.

Interested in the philosophy of physics. Defender of a critical realism based on a materialist and pluralist ontology , he maintained a belligerent attitude towards psychoanalysis, which he considers a pseudoscience subject to the uncritical acceptance of Freud’s doctrine as an authoritative argument; In an analogous sense, he considered that Marxism has not managed to overcome the ideological condition of a belief system because of its uncritical repetition of Marx’s teachings.

There are very destructive pseudosciences. For example, astrology is harmless. On the other hand, there are very harmful pseudosciences, such as standard economic theory, or all alternative medicines.

Mario Bunge ^[1]

He published at a feverish pace (his work totals hundreds of volumes), which included the elaboration of his monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy , composed of eight books divided into nine volumes that appeared between 1974 and 1989, covering everything from Ontology to Ethics .

In 1982 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Humanities.

He visited Argentina, invited by the Peronist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner :

He is having a very good administration and if there is something redeemable from the Kirchnerist governments [2003-2015] it is the support for science. They are the first governments in Argentine history to support scientific research.

Mario Bunge ^[1]

Plays

• 1967: Foundations of Physics, his main scientific book.
• 1974: Semantics I: meaning and reference.
• 1974-1989: Treatise on Basic Philosophy, in 8 volumes published. His main philosophical work.
• 1978: Causality: the principle of causality in modern science.
• 1982: Economics and philosophy
• 1983: Linguistics and philosophy
• 1985: Pseudoscience and ideology
• 1985: Rationality and realism
• 1985: Theory and reality
• 1989: Mind and society
• 1996: Intuition and reason
• 1997: Views and interviews
• 1999: Search for philosophy in the social sciences
• 1999: The social sciences in discussion
• 2000: Scientific research. His strategy and his philosophy
• 2000: The relationship between sociology and philosophy
• 2001: Dictionary of Philosophy
• 2001: The mind-brain problem
• 2001: Foundations of biophilosophy
• 2001: Three myths of our time: virtuality, globalization, equalization
• 2002: Crisis and reconstruction of philosophy
• 2002: Epistemology: refresher course
• 2002: Be, know, do
• 2003: Capsules
• 2003: Philosophy of psychology
• 2004: Emergence and convergence: qualitative novelty and unity of knowledge
• 2004: Myths, facts and reasons
• 2006: 100 ideas. The book to think and discuss in coffee
• 2007: On the hunt for reality.