This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge's science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems.
The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge's contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of technology, moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, medical philosophy, and education. The contributors include scholars from 16 countries.
Bunge combines ontological realism with epistemological fallibilism. He believes that science provides the best and most warranted knowledge of the natural and social world, and that such knowledge is the only sound basis for moral decision making and social and political reform. Bunge argues for the unity of knowledge. In his eyes, science and philosophy constitute a fruitful and necessary partnership. Readers will discover the wisdom of this approach and will gain insight into the utility of cross-disciplinary scholarship. This anthology will appeal to researchers, students, and teachers in philosophy of science, social science, and liberal education programmes.
1. Introduction (Michael R. Matthews)
Section I. An Academic Vocation
2. Mario Bunge: Argentine's Universal Thinker (Guillermo M. Denegri)
3. Mario Bunge in the Complex Argentina of the 1940s 1960s (Eduardo L. Ortiz)
4. Mario Bunge as a Public Intellectual (Heinz W. Droste)
Section II. Philosophy
5. Mario Bunge's Scientific Approach to Realism (Alberto Cordero)
6. Contrasting Materialisms: Engelsian Dialectical and Bunge's Emergentist (Pierre Deleporte)
7. Quantifiers and Conceptual Existence (Mar a Manzano Arjona&Manuel Crescencio Moreno)
8. Truth in the Post-Truth Era -- Evaluating the Theories of Truth with a Table of Contingency (Dominique Raynaud)
9. Is Simplicity a Myth? Mach and Bunge on the Principle of Parsimony ( igo Ongay)
10. Quantitative Epistemology (Nicholas Rescher)
11. Mario Bunge on Causality: Some Key Insights and Their Leibnizian Precedents (Richard T.W. Arthur)
12. Mario Bunge's Relevance for the Current Revival of Causal Realism (R gnvaldur Ingthorsson)
13. Systemic Thinking (Evandro Agazzi)
14. Mechanism Models as Necessary Truths (Ingvar Johansson)
15. Bunge contra Popper (Joseph Agassi& Nimrod Bar-Am)
16. Bunge is Correct about Positivism, but less so about Marxism and Hermeneutics (Alberto Oscar Cupani)
Section III. Physics and Philosophy of Physics
17. Physics and Philosophy of Physics in the Work of Mario Bunge (Gustavo E. Romero)
18. Causal Explanations: Are They Possible in Physics? (Andr s Rivadulla Rodr guez)
19. A Realist Analysis of Six Controversial Quantum Issues (Art Hobson)
20. On the Legacy of a Notable Quantum Dissident: David Bohm (1917-1992) (Olival Freire Jr.)
Section IV. Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind
21. Bunge and Contemporary Cognitive science (Peter Slezak)
22. Is Consciousness an Epiphenomenon? (Ignacio Morgado Bernal)
Section V. Sociology and Social Theory
23. Bunge and Scientific Anthropology (Marta Crivos)
24. Social Mechanisms and the Logic of Possibility Trees (Leonardo Ivarola)
25. Cultures as Semiotic Systems: Reconceptualizing Culture in a Systemic Perspective (Andreas Pickel)
26. Bunge on Science and Ideology: A Re-analysis (Russell Blackford)
Section VI. Ethics and Political Philosophy
27. Mario Bunge's Ethical Doctrine: Agathonism (Michael Kary)
28. How Can Bunge's Scientific-Humanistic Ethics Engage Islamic Moral Law? (A. Z. Obiedat)
29. Mario Bunge's Political Philosophy: On Socialism Through Integral Democracy (Michael Kary)
Section VII. Biology and Philosophy of Biology
30. A Reconstruction of the Theory of Ecology Based on Mario Bunge's Mechanistic Epistemology and Systemic Ontology (Carolina In s Garc a & Guillermo M. Denegri)
31. Mechanismic Approaches to Explanation in Ecology (Rafael Gonz lez del Solar, Luis Marone & Javier Lopez de Casenave)
32. Bungean Systemic Ontology and Its Application to Research in Animal Parasitism (Francisco Yannarella, Mauro A.E. Chaparro, Mart n Orensanz, Jos Geiser Villavicencio-Pulido& Guillermo Denegri)
Section VIII. Mathematics
33. Bunge's Mathematical Fictionalism (Jean-Pierre Marquis)
34. On Leaving as Little to Chance as Possible (Michael Kary)
35. Dual Axiomatics (Reinhard Kahle)
Section IX. Education
36. Mario Bunge and the Enlightenment Project in Science Education (Michael R. Matthews)
37. Cognition and Education: A Bungean Systemic Perspective (Ibrahim A. Halloun)
Section X. Varia
38. On Bunge's Requirement of Neurological Plausibility for a Linguistic Theory (Jos Mar a Gil)
39. Mechanisms in Clinical Research and Medical Practice (Omar Ahmad)
40. Emergence, Systems, and Technophilosophy (Byron Kaldis)
Section XI. Bibliography
41. Mario Bunge: An All-Language Bibliography (Marc Silberstein)