Mario Bunge
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Mario Augusto Bunge (born September 21, 1919, Buenos Aires) is an Argentinian philosopher and physicist mainly active in Canada.
Bunge began his studies at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, graduating with a Ph.D. in physico-mathematical sciences in 1952. He was professor of theoretical physics and philosophy, 1956 - 1966, first at La Plata then at Universidad de Buenos Aires. Dissatisfied with the political climate of his country, he chose to emigrate. After a few years teaching in American, Mexican and German universities, he has taught philosophy at McGill University in Montreal, Canada since 1966. He holds the Frothingham chair of Logic and Metaphysics at the University.
Bunge set out his philosophical thinking systematically in his Treatise on Basic Philosophy, a monumental work in 8 volumes, comprising semantics, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of science, and ethics. There, and in more than 80 books and 400 papers, Bunge develops a comprehensive scientific outlook which he then applies to the various natural and social sciences. His thinking embodies global rationalism, scientific realism, materialism and consequentialism. Bunge has repeatedly and explicitly denied being a logical positivist, and has written on metaphysics, dismissed by the Vienna Circle as meaningless. In the political arena, Bunge has defined himself as a "Left-wing liberal", in the tradition of the Argentine "positivist" movement of José Ingenieros and Carlos Octavio Bunge (his uncle).
One of Bunge's earliest American doctoral students was a future novelist named Chaim Potok; in Potok's first novel, The Chosen, there is a university professor named Abraham Flesser who makes a cameo appearance in chapter 13 and whose ideas bear a strong resemblance to those of Professor Bunge.
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[edit] References
- Racionalidad y realismo. Madrid: Alianza, 1985. [ISBN 84-206-2445-4]
- Vistas y entrevistas. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1997 (segunda edición) [ISBN 950-07-1311-X].
- Ética, ciencia y técnica. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1996. [ISBN 950-07-1131-1]
[edit] Selected Works by Mario Bunge
- 1960. La ciencia, su método y su filosofía. Buenos Aires: Eudeba. (In French: La science, sa méthode et sa philosophie. Paris: Vigdor, 2001. [ISBN 2-910243-90-7])
- 1962. Intuition and Science. Prentice-Hall. (In French: Intuition et raison. Paris: Vigdor, 2001. [ISBN 2-910243-89-3])
- 1967. Scientific Research. Strategy and Phylosophy. Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag. Reprinted as Philosophy of Science (1998).
- 1973. Philosophy of Physics. Dordrecht: Reidel.
- 1980. The Mind-Body Problem. Oxford: Pergamon.
- 1984. "What is Pseudoscience", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol.9, No.1, (Fall 1984), pp.36-46.
- 1974-89. Treatise on basic philosophy, in 8 vols. Dordrecht: Reidel.
- 1996. Finding Philosophy in Social Science. Yale University Press.
- 1998. Dictionary of Philosophy. Prometheus Books.
- 1998. Philosophy of Science, 2 Vols. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
- 1999. The Sociology-Philosophy Connection. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
- 2001. Philosophy in Crisis. Prometheus Books.
- 2003. Emergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- 2006. Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[edit] Works about Mario Bunge
- Andy Denis, Methodology and policy prescription in economic thought: a response to Mario Bunge.
- Agassi, Joseph, and Robert S. Cohen, eds., 1982. Scientific Philosophy Today: Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge. Dordrecht: Reidel.
- Raúl Serroni-Copello, 1989, Encuentros con Mario Bunge. Asociación de Investigaciones en Psicología.
- Weingartner, Paul, and Dorn, Georg, eds., 1990. Studies on Bunge's Treatise. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
- Vacher, Laurent-Michel, 1993. Entretiens avec Mario Bunge. Montreal: Laurent-Michel Vacher.
