Mario Bunge: Biography Of This Argentine Philosopher
Mario Bunge (1919-2020) was an intellectual, a key figure of the 20th and 21st centuries, belonging to the field of science and philosophy.
This Argentine philosopher, physicist and epistemologist, who recently died at the age of one hundred, dedicated his entire life to disseminating science and fighting pseudoscience.
In this article we will delve into the life of this philosopher through a biography of Mario Bunge in summarized format, and we will explain what were his most relevant contributions in the scientific and philosophical world. Finally, we will mention some of his famous phrases.
Mario Bunge (1919-2020) was a prominent Argentine intellectual and philosopher, as well as a physicist and epistemologist Bunge was born on September 21, 1919 in West Florida (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and died recently; on February 24, 2020, in Montreal (Quebec, Canada), at the age of one hundred.
Origin and personal life
His father, Augusto Bunge, was a doctor and socialist deputy; His mother, Maria Müser, was a nurse, of German origin who emigrated to Argentina just before the start of the First World War (WWI).
Regarding his personal life, Mario Bunge was married twice; With the first wife he had two children, and with the second (Marta Carvallo, Italian mathematician), he had two more. Curiously, all of his children have been university professors. In addition, he also had grandchildren (a total of 10), as well as some great-grandchildren.
Mario Bunge completed his compulsory secondary education at the National School in his hometown, Buenos Aires. Later, He received his doctorate from the National University of La Plata, in physics and mathematics
He began working as a professor in 1956, at the University of La Plata, where he taught theoretical physics and philosophy. He later worked as a professor at the University of Buenos Aires; He spent a total of seven years between the two universities, until 1963.
Bunge worked as a professor of philosophy, logic and metaphysics in many countries (he was fluent in English, French and German), such as: Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, Uruguay, Mexico, the United States, Germany and, of course, Argentina. In addition, he held a Chair of Logic and Metaphysics, called the Frothingham Chair, at McGill University in Montreal (Canada).
However, where Bunge spent the longest time as a teacher was at McGill University (Montreal), where he taught from 1966 until the date of his death.
As a fact worth highlighting about the philosopher, mention that in 1938, Mario Bunge founded and directed the Universidad Obrera Argentina (less than twenty years of age); This University had more than three thousand students. Unfortunately, it was closed by Peronism (Argentine political movement) in 1943.
Thought
Mario Bunge He considered himself a defender of scientific realism He intended to promote the exact, current philosophy that he himself originated. On the other hand, regarding his thinking and his orientation, he also considered himself a scientist, systemist and materialist.
Furthermore, Bunge was against pseudoscientific currents that is, those practices or currents of thought presented as scientific, but in reality they do not have a solid scientific basis that supports them or a scientific method that endorses them.
Bunge, throughout his career, fought against pseudoscience; According to him, these were: homeopathy, praxeology (the study of the logical structure of human action in an a priori way) and psychoanalysis, among others.
Regarding the more philosophical aspect, Bunge rejected and criticized currents such as phenomenology, existentialism, philosophical feminism and hermeneutics among other.
Economy and politics
In the field of economics and politics, Mario Bunge defended cooperative socialism ; This current or thought grouped together a series of reformist theories that defended the interests of the petite bourgeoisie.
In this sense, he also rejected Soviet-type socialism and populism.
Contributions and relevant works
Mario Bunge made numerous contributions to the field of science and philosophy. His contributions focused, above all, on scientific and philosophical dissemination at different levels.
As a noteworthy fact, Bunge founded the philosophy magazine Minerva (1944-45), and co-founded the Rio de la Plata Association of Logic and Scientific Philosophy (1956) (of which he was also president).
On the other hand, Bunge’s first work was Causality: The Place of the Causal Principle in Modern Science (1959), which was a great success and was translated into seven languages. In this work, he defends determinism in modern science.
Another of his great outstanding works was his treatise on the theory of science, called Scientific Research (1967), which we can find in Spanish, and which also had a great impact, especially among scholars of philosophy and science.
In addition, in Spanish, we also find the following relevant works by Mario Bunge (these are just a few):
Construction of a philosophical system
On the other hand, one of Bunge’s big projects, in which he was fully involved, was the construction of a philosophical system that covered different fields of knowledge , such as: semantics, ontology, philosophy of science or ethics, among others. This project was developed between 1969 and 1989.
Mario Bunge’s recognitions are numerous: to begin with, He received up to 21 honorary doctorates and four honorary professorships from different universities (both from Europe and America).
Bunge also received the Prince of Asturias award in 1982, and in 1986, he received the Konex Award (in the discipline “Logic and Theory of Science”), among various other awards. His last award was in 2016, and consisted of the second Konex Prize (in this case, in the discipline “Logic and Philosophy of Science”).
On the other hand, regarding its promotion of science and knowledge, it should be noted that Bunge He was, since 1984, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science He was also part, since 1992, of the Royal Society of Canada.
