Mario Augusto Bunge
1919-2020 · Latin American · Known
Mario Bunge was an Argentine-Canadian who trained as a physicist and then wrote an eight-volume Treatise on Basic Philosophy. The world is made of concrete systems, on his account, and the properties a system has that its parts lack are real while still being made of matter. Science reaches that world as it is. He spent decades attacking psychoanalysis, homeopathy and postmodern theory as fakery.
Signature
The position Bunge is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective
- Knowledge
- Naturalism
Positions on the 16 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Mechanistic (0 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- mildly between Collectivism and Individualism (41 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- leans Brain Only (14 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- Universals
- leans Nominalism (81 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- mildly leans Changing (61 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed (10 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (54 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (79 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Immanence (0 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (75 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- mildly leans Mastery (35 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- mildly between Illiberalism and Liberalism (56 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- mildly between Ends and Means (50 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (9 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (82 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
4 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Bunge refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Atheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Direct Democracy / Representative Democracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Other
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Natural Emergence
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Open Future
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Indirect Realism / Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Naturalism
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Other
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- Cooperative Commonwealth
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Adaptive Function
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?