Mario Bunge: biography of this Argentine philosopher.

A summary of the life and intellectual legacy of this important Argentine philosopher.

Mario Bunge (1919-2020) was an intellectual, key figure of the 20th and 21st century, belonging to the field of science and philosophy.

This Argentine philosopher, physicist and epistemologist, who died recently at the age of 100, dedicated his whole life to popularize science and to fight against pseudosciences.

In this article we will delve into the life of this philosopher through a biography of Mario Bunge. a biography of Mario Bunge in a summarized format, and we will explain which were his most relevant contributions in the scientific and philosophical world. Finally, we will mention some of his famous phrases.

Summarized biography of Mario Bunge

Mario Bunge (1919-2020) was a prominent Argentine intellectual and philosopher, as well as 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 years.

Origin and personal life

His father, Augusto Bunge, was a physician and socialist deputy; his mother, Maria Müser, was a nurse, of German origin, who emigrated to Argentina just before his death.who emigrated to Argentina just before the outbreak of the First World War (WWI).

As for his personal life, Mario Bunge was married twice; with his first wife he had two children, and with his second wife (Marta Carvallo, an Italian mathematician), he had two more. Curiously, all his children have been university professors. In addition, he also had grandchildren (a total of 10), as well as some great-grandchildren.

Education and career

Mario Bunge completed his compulsory secondary education at the Colegio Nacional in his hometown, Buenos Aires. Later on, D. at 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 then taught at the University of Buenos Aires; between the two universities he spent a total of seven years, until 1963.

Bunge worked as a professor of philosophy, logic and metaphysics in many countries (he was fluent in English, French and Spanish). (he was fluent in English, French and German), such as: Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, Uruguay, Mexico, United States, Germany and, of course, Argentina. In addition, he held a Chair of Logic and Metaphysics, called Frothingham Chair, at McGill University in Montreal (Canada).

However, Bunge's longest teaching tenure was at McGill University (Montreal), where he taught from 1966 until the date of his death.

As a noteworthy fact about the philosopher, it is worth mentioning that in 1938, Mario Bunge founded and directed the Universidad Obrera Argentina. founded and directed the Universidad Obrera Argentina (when he was less than twenty years old). (when he was less than twenty years old); this University had more than three thousand students. Unfortunately, it was closed by Peronism (Argentine political movement) in 1943.

Thought

Mario Bunge considered himself an advocate of scientific realism.. He intended to promote exact philosophy, a current that he himself originated. On the other hand, in terms of his thinking and orientation, he also considered himself a scientistic, systematic and materialist.

In addition, Bunge was against pseudoscientific currents.Bunge, that is to say, those practices or currents of thought presented as scientific, but which in reality do not have a solid scientific basis to support them nor a scientific method to back them up.

Bunge, throughout his career, fought against pseudosciences; according to him, these were: homeopathy, praxeology (the study of the logical structure of human action in an aprioristic way) and psychoanalysis, among others.

As for the more philosophical side, Bunge rejected and criticized currents such as the rejected and criticized currents such as phenomenology, existentialism, philosophical feminism and hermeneutics, among others.among others.

Economics and politics

In the field of economics and politics, Mario Bunge defended a cooperative socialism defended a cooperative socialismIn the field of economics and politics, Mario Bunge defended a cooperative socialism; this current or thought grouped a series of reformist theories that defended the interests of the petty bourgeoisie.

In this sense, he also rejected Soviet-type socialism and populism.

Relevant contributions and works

Mario Bunge made numerous contributions to the field of science and philosophy. His contributions focused, above all, on scientific and philosophical popularization at different levels.

As a noteworthy fact, Bunge founded the philosophical magazine Minerva (1944-45), and co-founded the Asociación Rioplatense de Lógica y Filosofía Científica (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 major 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 repercussion, especially among scholars of philosophy and science.

In addition, in Spanish, we also find the following relevant works by Mario Bunge (these are only some of them):

• La ciencia, su método y su filosofía (1960).
• Philosophy of Physics (1962)
• Theory and Reality (1981)
• Economics and Philosophy (1982)
• The mind-brain problem (2011)

Construction of a philosophical system

On the other hand, one of Bunge's great projects, in which he was fully involved, was the construction of a philosophical system covering different fields of knowledge, such as: semantics, semantics, semantics, semantics, semantics, semantics, semantics, semantics, semanticssuch as semantics, ontology, philosophy of science or ethics, among others. He developed this project between 1969 and 1989.

Awards

Mario Bunge has received numerous recognitions: to begin with, received up to 21 honorary doctorates and four honorary professorships from different universities (both in Europe and America). (both in 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 other various awards. His last award was in 2016, and consisted of the second Konex Award (in this case, in the discipline "Logic and Philosophy of Science").

On the other hand, in terms of his promotion of science and knowledge, it should be noted that Bunge was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1984.. He was also a member, since 1992, of the Royal Society of Canada.