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Physics and Philosophy of Physics in the Work of Mario Bunge

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Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift

Abstract

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 foundations of physics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See his publications (1967b,1967g through to 1970d, and 1977c, 2000, 2002a, 2003, 2012) in the Reference list. And his publications with Kálnay (1969, 1983a, b) and with Maynez (1977).

  2. 2.

    This confusion is so common among physicists that it can be found even in the young Einstein.

  3. 3.

    Photons have only two polarization modes.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Mario Bunge for more than 25 years of stimulating discussions on physics and philosophy. I am also indebted to Santiago Perez Bergliaffa, Pablo Jacovkis, Daniela Pérez, Luciano Combi, Federico López Armengol, Janou Glaeser, and Héctor Vucetich for valuable discussions, questions, and criticisms. I am grateful with the members of the working group on Mario Bunge’s work in Facebook, in particular with Gerardo Primero, Emerson Salinas Caparachin, Manuel Carroza Muro, Nicolás Pérez, Ed Cidd, Silvio Sánchez Mújica, Sergio Riva de Neyra, Gustavo Garay, and Matías Castro. I appreciate the kind hospitality of the University of Barcelona and the Institute of Cosmos Science (ICCUB) and its Head, Prof. Josep M. Paredes. Finally, I am thankful to Micheal Matthews for significantly improving the original manuscript and his superb job as editor of this volume. My research is supported by grant PIP 0338 (CONICET) and grant AYA2016-76012-C3-1P (Ministro de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, España).

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  1. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía (IAR, CCT La Plata, CONICET-CIC), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Gustavo E. Romero

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  1. Gustavo E. Romero
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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Romero, G.E. (2019). Physics and Philosophy of Physics in the Work of Mario Bunge. In: Matthews, M.R. (eds) Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16673-1_17

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