•  17
    What is Materialism? History and Concepts
    In Gustavo E. Romero, Javier Pérez-Jara & Lino Camprubí (eds.), Contemporary Materialism: Its Ontology and Epistemology, Springer. pp. 1-77. 2022.
    Despite the central presence of materialism in the history of philosophy, there is no universal consensus on the meaning of the word “matter” nor of the doctrine of philosophical materialism. Dictionaries of philosophy often identify this philosophy with its most reductionist and even eliminative versions, in line with Robert Boyle’s seventeenth century coinage of the term. But when we take the concept back in time to Greek philosophers and forward onto our own times, we recognize more inclusive…Read more
  •  65
    Systemic materialism
    In Gustavo E. Romero, Javier Pérez-Jara & Lino Camprubí (eds.), Contemporary Materialism: Its Ontology and Epistemology, Springer. 2022.
    I present a condensed exposé of systemic materialism, a synthesis of materialism and systemism originally proposed by Mario Bunge. Matter is identified with mutability of propertied particulars, and a concrete or material system is defined as an object with composition, structure, mechanism, and environment. I review different aspects of this ontology, and discuss some of its implications for epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. I also try to identify some problems of this view and offer some w…Read more
  •  55
    La Falacia de Apelación a los Natural
    Infoalimentos ( 18 Octubre 2023): 1-7. 2023.
    En este artículo se presenta una caracterización del concepto de falacia, con énfasis en la llamada ‘falacia de apelación a lo natural’. Se explica el alcance de esta falacia, y su peligrosidad, en particular en el ámbito de las ciencias de la salud y de alimentos.
  •  58
    Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift (edited book)
    with Mario Augusto Bunge, Michael R. Matthews, Guillermo M. Denegri, Eduardo L. Ortiz, Heinz W. Droste, Alberto Cordero, Pierre Deleporte, María Manzano, Manuel Crescencio Moreno, Dominique Raynaud, Íñigo Ongay de Felipe, Nicholas Rescher, Richard T. W. Arthur, Rögnvaldur D. Ingthorsson, Evandro Agazzi, Ingvar Johansson, Joseph Agassi, Nimrod Bar-Am, Alberto Cupani, Andrés Rivadulla, Art Hobson, Olival Freire Junior, Peter Slezak, Ignacio Morgado-Bernal, Marta Crivos, Leonardo Ivarola, Andreas Pickel, Russell Blackford, Michael Kary, A. Z. Obiedat, Carolina I. García Curilaf, Rafael González del Solar, Luis Marone, Javier Lopez de Casenave, Francisco Yannarella, Mauro A. E. Chaparro, José Geiser Villavicencio- Pulido, Martín Orensanz, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Reinhard Kahle, Ibrahim A. Halloun, José María Gil, Omar Ahmad, Byron Kaldis, Marc Silberstein, Carolina I. García Curilaf, Rafael González del Solar, Javier Lopez de Casenave, Íñigo Ongay de Felipe, and Villavicencio-Pulid
    Springer Verlag. 2019.
    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…Read more
  •  72
    El valor de la ciencia
    Percontari 16 27-29. 2018.
    Ofrezco una justificación breve del valor de la actividad científica y una vindicación de su defensa.
  •  108
    En esta nota ofrezco una caracterización de los conceptos de experiencia estética, valor estético y belleza.
  •  63
    Se presenta un breve análisis comparativo del lenguaje religioso y el lenguaje científico.
  •  78
    A Formal Ontological Theory Based on Timeless Events
    Philosophia 44 (2): 607-622. 2016.
    I offer a formal ontological theory where the basic building blocks of the world are timeless events. The composition of events results in processes. Spacetime emerges as the system of all events. Things are construed as bundles of processes. I maintain that such a view is in accord with General Relativity and offers interesting prospects for the foundations of classical and quantum gravity.
  •  32
    Contemporary Materialism: Its Ontology and Epistemology (edited book)
    with Javier Pérez-Jara and Lino Camprubí
    Springer. 2022.
    This book provides an up-to-date revision of materialism’s central tenets, its main varieties, and the place of materialistic philosophy vis a vis scientific knowledge. Materialism has been the subject of extensive and rich controversies since Robert Boyle introduced the term for the first time in the 17th century. But what is materialism and what can it offer today? The term is usually defined as the worldview according to which everything real is material. Nevertheless, there is no philosophic…Read more
  •  535
    I present a discussion of some issues in the ontology of spacetime. After a characterisation of the controversies among relationists, substantivalists, eternalists, and presentists, I offer a new argument for rejecting presentism, the doctrine that only present objects exist. Then, I outline and defend a form of spacetime realism that I call event substantivalism. I propose an ontological theory for the emergence of spacetime from more basic entities. Finally, I argue that a relational theory of…Read more
  •  1586
    Philosophy of Ideology
    In Javier Pérez Jara & Íñigo Ongay de Felipe (eds.), Overcoming the Nature Versus Nurture Debate, Springer. forthcoming.
    The concept of ideology is central to the understanding of the many political, economic, social, and cultural processes that have occurred in the last two centuries. And yet, what is the nature of the different ideologies remains a vague, open, and much disputed question. Many political, sociological, and ideological studies have been devoted to ideology. Very little, on the other hand, has been done from the philosophical field. And this despite the fact that there are undoubtedly many philosop…Read more
  •  1586
    Materialism has been the subject of extensive and rich controversies since Robert Boyle introduced the term for the first time in the 17th century. But what is materialism and what can it offer today? The term is usually defined as the worldview according to which everything real is material. Nevertheless, there is no philosophical consensus about whether the meaning of matter can be enlarged beyond the physical. As a consequence, materialism is often defined in stark exclusive and reductionist term…Read more
  •  253
    Black Hole Philosophy
    Crítica. Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 53 (159). 2021.
    Black holes are arguably the most extraordinary physical objects we know in the universe. Despite our thorough knowledge of black hole dynamics and our ability to solve Einstein’s equations in situations of ever increasing complexity, the deeper implications of the very existence of black holes for our understanding of space, time, causality, information, and many other things remain poorly understood. In this paper I survey some of these problems. If something is going to be clear from my prese…Read more
  •  64
    La Naturaleza del Tiempo
    Laetoli. 2020.
    “Seguramente, hasta hoy no creía que no aumentará de peso ni se achicará al aumentar la velocidad de la nave, ni que lo que es ahora para usted ya pasó para Fulano y aún no ocurrió para Zutano, ¿verdad? Desengáñese, porque el autor de este libro, nada menos que profesor de astrofísica relativista y autoridad mundial en agujeros negros y otros portentos, le hará dudar de todo eso” (del prólogo de Mario Bunge). “Como Borges —escribe el autor—, he sentido que el del tiempo es el problema esencial d…Read more
  •  174
    Space, time, and irreversibility
    MÈTODE Science Studies Journal 7 201-209. 2017.
    Scientific philosophy is that which is informed by science. It uses exact tools such as logic and mathematics and provides a framework for scientific activity to solve more general questions about nature, the language we use to describe it, and the knowledge we obtain thanks to it. Many of the scientific philosophy theories can be proven and evaluated using scientific evidence. In this paper, I focus on showing how several classical philosophy topics, such as the nature of space and time or the …Read more
  •  319
    Confesiones de un maldito cientificista
    In Gabriel Andrade (ed.), Elogio del Cientificismo, Laetoli. pp. 77-106. 2017.
    A chapter of the book Elogio del Cientificismo.
  •  329
    Ciencia, libertad y ética
    Ciencia Del Sur 2 (12.08.2020): 1-34. 2020.
    La representación científica del mundo se construye sobre un tejido de teorías en las cuales hay enunciados generales que representan leyes naturales. Estas leyes son patrones de sucesos regulares. Un presupuesto básico de la ciencia es que todo acontecimiento es legal: ocurre regido por leyes que son fijas. ¿Es compatible esa legalidad con la libertad de elección que creemos tener? ¿Cuáles son las implicaciones para la libertad política que debemos esperar en una sociedad organizada y racional?…Read more
  •  154
    Truth and relevancy
    Metatheoria – Revista de Filosofía E Historia de la Ciencia 7 25--30. 2017.
    There are several types of truths. In this paper I focus on semantic truths, and within these on factual truths. These truths are attributed to statements. I review the theory of the truth proposed by Bunge and discuss some problems that it presents. I suggest that a theory of truth of factual statements should be complemented by a theory of relevance, and propose the basic tenets of it. Finally, I briefly discuss the nature of propositions and the problem of scientific truth in the light of the…Read more
  •  2
    Sobre la inconsistencia de la interpretación de Everett de la mecánica cuántica
    with Luciano Combi
    Metatheoria – Revista de Filosofía E Historia de la Ciencia 7 47--53. 2017.
  •  3
    Confusiones de interpretación en mecánica cuántica elemental
    with Federico G. Lopez Armengol
    Metatheoria – Revista de Filosofía E Historia de la Ciencia 7 55--60. 2017.
  •  1138
    Physics and Philosophy of Physics in the Work of Mario Bunge
    In Mario Augusto Bunge, Michael R. Matthews, Guillermo M. Denegri, Eduardo L. Ortiz, Heinz W. Droste, Alberto Cordero, Pierre Deleporte, María Manzano, Manuel Crescencio Moreno, Dominique Raynaud, Íñigo Ongay de Felipe, Nicholas Rescher, Richard T. W. Arthur, Rögnvaldur D. Ingthorsson, Evandro Agazzi, Ingvar Johansson, Joseph Agassi, Nimrod Bar-Am, Alberto Cupani, Gustavo E. Romero, Andrés Rivadulla, Art Hobson, Olival Freire Junior, Peter Slezak, Ignacio Morgado-Bernal, Marta Crivos, Leonardo Ivarola, Andreas Pickel, Russell Blackford, Michael Kary, A. Z. Obiedat, Carolina I. García Curilaf, Rafael González del Solar, Luis Marone, Javier Lopez de Casenave, Francisco Yannarella, Mauro A. E. Chaparro, José Geiser Villavicencio- Pulido, Martín Orensanz, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Reinhard Kahle, Ibrahim A. Halloun, José María Gil, Omar Ahmad, Byron Kaldis, Marc Silberstein, Carolina I. García Curilaf, Rafael González del Solar, Javier Lopez de Casenave, Íñigo Ongay de Felipe & Villavicencio-Pulid (eds.), Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift, Springer Verlag. pp. 289-301. 2019.
    This brief review of Mario Bunge’s research on physics begins with an analysis of his masterpiece Foundations of Physics, and then it discusses his other contributions to the philosophy of physics. Following that is a summary of his more recent reactions to scientific discoveries in physics and a discussion of his position about non-locality in quantum mechanics, as well as his changing opinions on the nature of spacetime. The paper ends with a brief assessment of Bunge’s legacy concerning the f…Read more
  •  496
    ¿De qué se trata la matemática?
    Scientia in Verba Magazine 6 (1): 60-64. 2020.
    Las teorías que usamos para representar el mundo pueden ser extremadamente complejas. Abordan temas tales como electrones, campos cuánticos, estrellas de neutrones, materia oscura, redes neuronales, mercados económicos, la atmósfera y muchas otras entidades que suponemos existen en el universo. Al formular nuestras teorías, recurrimos a lenguajes exactos que nos permiten minimizar la vaguedad y expresarnos lo más precisa y cuantitativamente posible. Recurrimos a la matemática. Cuando formulamos …Read more
  •  34
    Scientific Philosophy
    Springer Verlag. 2018.
    This textbook presents the basics of philosophy that are necessary for the student and researcher in science in order to better understand scientific work. The approach is not historical but formative: tools for semantical analysis, ontology of science, epistemology, and scientific ethics are presented in a formal and direct way. The book has two parts: one with the general theory and a second part with application to some problems such as the interpretation of quantum mechanics, the nature of m…Read more
  •  21
    Mario Bunge on Gravitational Waves and the Reality of Spacetime
    Foundations of Science 23 (2): 405-409. 2018.
    I discuss the recent claims made by Mario Bunge on the philosophical implications of the discovery of gravitational waves. I think that Bunge is right when he points out that the detection implies the materiality of spacetime, but I reject his identification of spacetime with the gravitational field. I show that Bunge’s analysis of the spacetime inside a hollow sphere is defective, but this in no way affects his main claim.
  •  490
    Outline of a Theory of Scientific Aesthetics
    Foundations of Science 23 (4): 795-807. 2018.
    I offer a theory of art that is based on science. I maintain that, as any other human activity, art can be studied with the tools of science. This does not mean that art is scientific, but aesthetics, the theory of art, can be formulated in accord with our scientific knowledge. I present elucidations of the concepts of aesthetic experience, art, work of art, artistic movement, and I discuss the ontological status of artworks from the point of view of scientific philosophy.
  •  21
    Cosmological Black Holes and the Direction of Time
    with Federico G. López Armengol and Daniela Pérez
    Foundations of Science 23 (2): 415-426. 2018.
    Macroscopic irreversible processes emerge from fundamental physical laws of reversible character. The source of the local irreversibility seems to be not in the laws themselves but in the initial and boundary conditions of the equations that represent the laws. In this work we propose that the screening of currents by black hole event horizons determines, locally, a preferred direction for the flux of electromagnetic energy. We study the growth of black hole event horizons due to the cosmologica…Read more
  •  61
    Mario Bunge on Gravitational Waves and the Reality of Spacetime
    Foundations of Science 23 (2): 405-409. 2018.
    I discuss the recent claims made by Mario Bunge on the philosophical implications of the discovery of gravitational waves. I think that Bunge is right when he points out that the detection implies the materiality of spacetime, but I reject his identification of spacetime with the gravitational field. I show that Bunge’s analysis of the spacetime inside a hollow sphere is defective, but this in no way affects his main claim.
  •  25
    Black holes are extremely relativistic objects. Physical processes around them occur in a regime where the gravitational field is extremely intense. Under such conditions, our representations of space, time, gravity, and thermodynamics are pushed to their limits. In such a situation philosophical issues naturally arise. In this chapter I review some philosophical questions related to black holes. In particular, the relevance of black holes for the metaphysical dispute between presentists and ete…Read more
  •  735
    The ontology of General Relativity
    In M. Novello & S. E. Perez Bergliaffa (eds.), General Relativity and Gravitation, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.
    I discuss the ontological assumptions and implications of General Relativity. I maintain that General Relativity is a theory about gravitational fields, not about space-time. The latter is a more basic ontological category, that emerges from physical relations among all existents. I also argue that there are no physical singularities in space-time. Singular space-time models do not belong to the ontology of the world: they are not things but concepts, i.e. defective solutions of Einstein’s field…Read more
  •  137
    Presentism meets black holes
    with Daniela Pérez
    European Journal for Philosophy of Science 4 (3): 293-308. 2014.
    Presentism is, roughly, the metaphysical doctrine that maintains that whatever exists, exists in the present. The compatibility of presentism with the theories of special and general relativity was much debated in recent years. It has been argued that at least some versions of presentism are consistent with time-orientable models of general relativity. In this paper we confront the thesis of presentism with relativistic physics, in the strong gravitational limit where black holes are formed. We …Read more