Taking an unorthodox look at the key philosophical assumptions in the social sciences, this work contends that social scientists such as anthropologists and sociologists ought not to leave philosophy to philosophers who have little expertise in or knowledge of the social sciences.[...]
The causal problem has become topical once again. While we are no longer causalists or believers in the universal truth of the causal principle we continue to think of causes and effects, as well as of causal and noncausal relations among them. Instead of becoming indeterminists we have enlarged det[...]
Most social scientists and philosophers claim that sociology and philosophy are disjoint fields of inquiry. Some have wondered how to trace the precise boundary between them. Mario Bunge argues that the two fields are so entangled with one another that no demarcation is possible or, indeed, desirabl[...]
Two problems continually arise in the sciences and humanities, according to Mario Bunge: parts and wholes and the origin of novelty. In Emergence and Convergence, he works to address these problems, as well as that of systems and their emergent properties, as exemplified by the synthesis of molecule[...]
Chasing Reality deals with the controversies over the reality of the external world. Distinguished philosopher Mario Bunge offers an extended defence of realism, a critique of various forms of contemporary anti-realism, and a sketch of his own version of realism, namely hylorealism. Bunge examines[...]
Is philosophy dead? Some philosophers have declared it to be so, and judging by some of the mental acrobatics now fashionable in postmodernist circles a reasonable person might have to agree. Though recognising the moribund state of current academic philosophy, Mario Bunge feels that this is a crisi[...]
Für den Idealismus stellt das menschliche Bewusstsein das Zentrum der Welt dar, für den Materialismus dagegen ist die reale Welt das Primäre und der Mensch ihr Produkt. Obwohl der Materialismus so alt ist wie die Philosophie selbst, bildete er stets die Minderheitenposition. Nun scheinen vor alle[...]
This book discusses two of the oldest and hardest problems in both science and philosophy: What is matter?, and What is mind? A reason for tackling both problems in a single book is that two of the most influential views in modern philosophy are that the universe is mental (idealism), and that the e[...]
This is the first book that analyzes and systematizes all the general ideas of medicine, in particular the philosophical ones, which are usually tacit. The aims of this book are to ferret out, investigate, and inter-relate the most general concepts and assumptions involved in medical research and pr[...]
Mario Bunge, author of the monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy, is widely renowned as a philosopher of science. In this new and ambitious work he shifts his attention to the social sciences and the social technologies. He considers a number of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, eco[...]