A physicist and philosopher, Bunge was the author of an abundant philosophical production focused on the Methodology and Philosophy of Science after receiving a training of humanist and philosophical cut based on the reading of the classics of the to literature and authors such as Hegel, Marx, Freud and Rusell, from which he would later distance himself critically.
From a German family related to Spaniards from the Basque Country and Asturias, he studied physics and mathematics at the National University of La Plata, and after being the co-founder in 1944 of the prestigious Argentine Physical Association saw his career truncated because of their ethical and political commitments.
Theoretical Physics and Philosophy of Science
At the fall of Perón, he was reinstated to the University of Buenos Aires and appointed professor of Theoretical Physics and Philosophy of Science until he left his country in 1963 and went through American and German universities. He was finally installed in 1966 at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Founder of the philosophy magazine Minerva (1944-45), he co-founded the Rioplatense Association of Logic and Scientific Philosophy (1956), of which he was president. He broke into the field of Science Theory in 1959 with his work “Causality: The Place of the Causal Principle in Modern Science”, translated into seven languages, and in which he advocates an expanded principle of determinism in modern science.
In 1967 he published his treatise on science theory, “Scientific Research”, translated two years later into Spanish, and whose impact among scholars of the philosophy of science has been noticeable.
Among his works in the Spanish language also stand out “Theory and Reality”, “Philosophy of Physics”, “Epistemology, Materialism and Science”, “The Mind-Brain Problem” or “Economy and Philosophy” and between 1969 and 1989 Bunge worked on the construction of a system philosophical encompasses ontology, semantics, knowledge theory, philosophy of science and technology, value theory and ethics.
Prince of Asturias of Communication and Humanities
Distinguished with sixteen honorary doctorates and four honorary professors, in 2009 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2014 the Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award after the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in the second edition of the awards that bear the title of the heir of the Spanish Crown.
The jury highlighted its contribution to the analysis and foundation of theories in the field of Natural and Social Sciences with a long series of works that have been greatly influencing the research carried out in these subjects both in Spain and in Latin America,” as the minutes picked up.
After learning of Bunge’s death, the director of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, Teresa Sanjurjo, has shown her regret at the death of “one of the most influential philosophers and thinkers of the 20th century, with a fruitful work, an intense and fruitful teaching work and researcher and a vast and deep knowledge.”
According to Sanjurjo, works such as the “Treaty of Philosophy” are an example of the transcendence of his work and a symbol of the values that were recognized with the prize and recalls “more intensely than ever” his magnificent work, his dedication and wisdom, “as well as the very positive influence that his work has had on other researchers and professors around the world.”
