Abstract
The first half of this article follows Mario Bunge’s early realist moves, his efforts to articulate the achievements of theoretical physics as gains in the quest for objective truth and understanding, particularly in the context of the fights against the idealist and subjectivist interpretations of quantum mechanics that, at least until the mid-1970s, prevailed in physics. Bunge’s answers to the problems of quantum mechanics provide a good angle for understanding how his realist positions grew on the “battlefield.” The second half discusses Bunge’s general conception of the scientific realist stance and confronts it with some current approaches to realism in the mainstream literature.
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Notes
- 1.
A particularly central reference is von Neumann (1932/1955).
- 2.
- 3.
Bunge (1955) spells out his main charges of subjectivism against Bohr.
- 4.
The March issue of volume 47 (1996) of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science contains a good survey of recent subjectivist approaches.
- 5.
This invocation of the Moon is not new (Pais 1979, p. 907). During one of their discussions about quantum mechanics Einstein asked Bohr: “…but, do you really believe the moon only exists when you look at it?” Einstein apparently would not take seriously Bohr’s relationist point about dynamical properties.
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Cordero, A. (2019). Mario Bunge’s Scientific Approach to Realism. In: Matthews, M.R. (eds) Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16673-1_5
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