TREATISE ON BASIC PHILOSOPHY. Volume 7 EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY III: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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1 TREATISE ON BASIC PHILOSOPHY Volume 7 EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY III: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2 TREATISE ON BASIC PHILOSOPHY S E MAT I C S I Sense and Reference 2 SEMATICS II Interpretation and Truth 3 ONTOLOGY I The Furniture of the World 4 ONTOLOGY II A World of Systems 5 EPISTEMOLOGY & METHODOLOGY I Exploring the World 6 EPI STEMOLOGY & METHODOLOGY II Understanding the World 7 EPISTEMOLOGY & MET HOD 0 LOG Y II I Philosophy of Science & Technology 8 E T HI C S The Good and the Right

3 MARIO BUNGE Treatise on Basic Philosophy VOLUME 7 Epistemology & Methodology III: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PART II LIFE SCIENCE, SOCIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER

4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bunge, Mario Augusto. Philosophy of science and technology. (Epistemology & methodology; 3) (Treatise on basic philosophy; v. 7) Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. Contents: pi. 1. Formal and physical sciences - pi. 2. Life science, social science. and technology. I. Science-Philosophy. 2. Technology-Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series: Bunge, Mario Augusto. Epistemology & methodology; 3. III. Series: Bunge, Mario Augusto. Treatise on basic philosophy; v. 7. BDI61.B no. 3 [Q175J 121 [121] ISBN (pi. 2) ISBN (pi. I) ISBN (pbk.: pi. 2) ISBN (pbk.: pt. I) Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box AA Dordrecht, Holland. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers 190 Old Derby Street. Hingham. MA 02043, U.S.A. In all other countries. sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland. All Rights Reserved cd 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means. electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system. without written permission from the copyright owner ISBN-13: O e-isbn-13: : / Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985

5 GENERAL PREFACE TO THE TREATISE This volume is part of a comprehensive Treatise on Basic Philosophy. The treatise encompasses what the author takes to be the nucleus of contemporary philosophy, namely semantics (theories of meaning and truth), epistemology (theories of knowledge), metaphysics (general theories of the world), and ethics (theories of value and right action). Social philosophy, political philosophy, legal philosophy, the philosophy of education, aesthetics, the philosophy of religion and other branches of philosophy have been excluded from the above quadrivium either because they have been absorbed by the sciences of man or because they may be regarded as applications of both fundamental philosophy and logic. Nor has logic been included in the Treatise although it is as much a part of philosophy as it is of mathematics. The reason for this exclusion is that logic has become a subject so technical that only mathematicians can hope to make original contributions to it. We have just borrowed whatever logic we use. The philosophy expounded in the Treatise is systematic and, to some extent, also exact and scientific. That is, the philosophical theories formulated in these volumes are (a) formulated in certain exact (mathematical) languages and (b) hoped to be consistent with contemporary science. Now a word of apology for attempting to build a system of basic philosophy. As we are supposed to live in the age of analysis, it may well be wondered whether there is any room left, except in the cemeteries of ideas, for philosophical syntheses. The author's opinion is that analysis, though necessary, is insufficient - except of course for destruction. The ultimate goal of theoretical research, be it in philosophy, science, or mathematics, is the construction of systems, i.e. theories. Moreover these theories should be articulated into systems rather than being disjoint, let alone mutually at odds. Once we have got a system we may proceed to taking it apart. First the tree, then the sawdust. And having attained the sawdust stage we should move on to the next, namely the building of further systems. And this for three reasons: because the world itself is systemic, because no idea can become fully clear unless it is embedded in some system or other, and because sawdust philosophy is rather boring. v

6 VI GENERAL PREFACE TO THE TREATISE The author dedicates this work to his philosophy teacher Kanenas T. Pot a in gratitude for his advice: "Do your own thing. Your reward will be doing it, your punishment having done it".

7 CONTENTS OF EPISTEMOLOGY III PART II GENERAL PREFACE TO THE TREATISE PREFACE TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3. LIFE SCIENCE: FROM BIOLOGY TO PSYCHOLOGY 1. Life and its Study 1.1. Life Biology II 2. Two Classics 2.1. Teleology Systematics Two Modems 3.1. Genetics Evolution Brain and Mind 4.1. Neuroscience Neuropsychology Strife Over Mind 5.1. Alternative Approaches Types of Psychological Explanation From Biology to Sociology 6.1. Social Psychology Sociobiology \0 I 7. Concluding Remarks v IX xi SOCIAL SCIENCE: FROM ANTHROPOLOGY TO HISTORY Society and its Study Society I \0 1.2 Social Science I I7 2. Anthropology 2.1 The Basic Social Science Explanation in Anthropology Linguistics 3.1 Language Linguistics

8 VlII CHAPTER 3 4. Sociology and Politology Sociology Politology Economics 5.1 Referents and Regularities Theory and Reality History 6.1 The Strands and Driving Forces of History The Historian's Craft 20 I 7. Concluding Remarks TECHNOLOGY: FROM ENGINEERING TO DECISION THEORY Generalities Artifact Technology Classical Technologies 2.1 Engineering Technologies of Life and Mind Information Technology 3.1 The Information Revolution Artificial Intelligence Sociotechnology 4.1 Management Science Social Engineering General Technology 5.1 Systems Theory Decision Theory Technology in Society 6.1 The Social Matrix Values and Morals Concluding Remarks BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF NAMES INDEX OF SUBJECTS

9 PREFACE TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY This is a systematic study in the philosophy of science and technology, or PS & T for short. It struggles with some of the so-called Big Questions in and about contemporary S & T, i.e. questions supposed to be general, deep, hard, and still sub judice. Here is a random sample of such problematics. Is verbal psychotherapy scientific? Is political economy ideologically neutral? Are computers creative? What is the ontological status of machines? Is engineering just an application of basic science? What is language? Are there laws of history? Which are the driving forces of history? Which is the most fruitful approach to the study of mind? Are genes omnipotent? Are species collections or concrete systems? Do the earth sciences have laws of their own? Is chemistry nothing but a chapter of physics? Does contemporary cosmology confirm theology? Has the quantum theory refuted scientific realism? Is there a viable philosophy of mathematics? How are we to choose among alternative logics? What is the ontological status of concepts? These and other questions of interest to philosophy, as well as to science or technology, are tackled in this book from a viewpoint that is somewhat different from the dominant PS & T. An instant history of our discipline should help place our viewpoint. Modem PS & T began together with modem science and it was cultivated by scientists and philosophers until it became professionalized in the 1920s. At this time it took a logical tum: it was equated with the logical analysis and orderly reconstruction of scientific theories. Experimental and field work were deemed to be ancillary to theorizing, and technology was praised or deprecated, but hardly analyzed. Later on PS & T took a linguistic tum: only the languages of S & T seemed to matter. Facts, problems, theories, experiments, methods, designs and plans were overlooked. More recently, PS & T took a historical tum: everything was seen from a historical viewpoint. The logic, semantics, epistemology, ontology and ethics of S & T were declared subservient to its history or even irrelevant. Even more recently there have been attempts to force PS & T to take a sociological tum. Facts are said to be the creation of researchers, who would act only in response to social stimuli or inhibitors; there would be neither norms nor objective truth. ix

10 X PREFACE TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY I believe the time has come for PS & T to take, or rather retake, a philosophical turn : to investigate the logical and semantic ai, epistemological and ontological, axiological and ethical problems raised by contemporary S & T, leaving the sociological and historical studies to social scientists. The time has also come to approach the problematics of PS & T in a scientific fashion, by paying close attention to current developments in S & T and checking philosophical hypotheses against the findings of S & T. At least this is the approach adopted in the present volume. Although this book is part of an eight-volume treatise, it is self-contained: it can be read independently of the others. Moreover, each chapter can be read independently of the others. The book is addressed to philosophers, scientists, technologists, and culture watchers. It may be used as a textbook in a one year advanced course in PS & T. Each chapter may also be used in a course in the corresponding branch of PS & T. To facilitate its use as a textbook, the present volume has been divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to the philosophy of the formal and physical sciences, whereas Part II covers the philosophy of the biological and social sciences as well as of the technologies.

11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lowe much to the many students who took my courses in PS & T: they asked interesting questions, shot down half-baked ideas, and provided valuable information. I am no less indebted to hundreds of specialists with whom I have had the privilege of discussing a host of problems in the course of four decades of scientific and philosophical research. These interactions have helped me identify and work out some of the methodological and philosophical problems that working scientists and technologists confront or skirt. They have also provided both stimulation and control. I am particularly indebted to: my teacher Guido Beck (physics), Dave Bernardi (information technology), David Blitz (social work), Stephen Brush (history of science), George Bugliarello (engineering), Carlos F. Bunge (physics), Marta C. Bunge (mathematics), Maria E. Burgos (physics), Mike Dillinger (linguistics and psychology), Bernard Dubrovsky (physiology and psychiatry), Antonio Fernandez-Ranada (physics), Emilio Flor-Perez (geology), Maximo Garcia-Sucre (chemistry), Enrique Gaviola (S & T policy), Jacobo M. Goldschvartz (physics), Ted Harrison (astronomy), Jacques Herman (sociology), Luis Herrera (astronomy), Andres J. Kalnay (physics), Bernulf Kanitscheider (philosophy), Bernardo Kliksberg (management science), Hiroshi Kurosaki (philosophy), Jose Leite-L6pes (physics), Jean-Marc Levy-Leblond (physics), Ralph W. Lewis (biology), Jean-Pierre Marquis (philosophy), Storrs McCall (philosophy), Mauricio Milchberg (information technology), Francisco Mir6-Quesada (philosophy), Jesus Mosterin (logic), Jorge Niosi (economic sociology), Phineas Finn O'Jonceys (retrieving), Jose L. Pardos (international relations), Michel Paty (physics), Raul Prebisch (economics), Miguel A. Quintanilla (philosophy), Osvaldo A. Reig (biology), A.C. Riccardi (paleontology), the late Jorge A. Sabato (S & T policy), Nicolas Sanchez-Albornoz (history), Yasuo Sasaki (Toyota Motor Co.), Daniel Seni (city planning), William R. Shea (history of science), Abner Shimony (physics), John Maynard Smith (biology), Jose Felix Tobar (engineering), Clifford Truesdell (applied mathematics), Raimo Tuomela (philosophy), Hao Wang (mathematics), Paul Weingartner (philosophy), and Rene Zayan (ethology). Had I listened to all their criticisms and suggestions, this would have been a better and thicker book. xi