Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism

by Mario Bunge

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 the main varieties of antirealism - Berkeley's, Hume's, and Kant's; positivism, phenomenology, and constructivism - and argues that all of these in fact hinder scientific research. Bunge's realist contention is that genuine explanations in the sciences appeal to causal laws and mechanisms that are not directly observable, rather than simply to empirical generalisations. Genuine science, in his view, is objective even when it deals with subjective phenomena such as feelings of fear. This work defends a realist view of universals, kinds, possibilities, and dispositions, while rejecting contemporary accounts of these that are couched in terms of modal logic and 'possible worlds.'

Genres: Philosophy

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mario Augusto Bunge fue un físico, filósofo, epistemólogo y humanista argentino; Bunge por encima de todo fue un filósofo materialista, defensor del realismo científico y de la filosofía exacta. Fue conocido por expresar públicamente su postura contraria a las pseudociencias, entre las que incluye al psicoanálisis, la praxeología, la homeopatía, la microeconomía neoclásica (u ortodoxa) entre otras, además de sus críticas contra corrientes filosóficas como el existencialismo (y, especialmente, la obra de Martin Heidegger), la fenomenología, el posmodernismo, la hermenéutica, y el feminismo filosófico.

Reviews

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this is a badly misguided work. The argument is not made for realism, but instead for a form of unjustified materialism disguised as realism. It is a common error since logical positivism in philosophical circles to try to confound a bunch of doctrines together and dogmatically assert them as what science tells us is true. This is a typical example of this kind of error. Ultimately, materialism, empiricism and realism are supposed to all merge in the one true scientific faith. This is quite a pure example of science apologism in philosophy, and quite disappointing because his work on Causality actually was in some ways insightful.

[Viceant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introduction to Mario Bunge's project of philosophy, tough it is a bit dense for novices like me.