Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist

Springer Editions

“To go through the pages of the Autobiography of Mario Bunge is to accompany him through dozens of countries and examine the intellectual, political, philosophical and scientific spheres of the last hundred years. It is an experience that oscillates between two different worlds: the different and the similar, the professional and the personal.

It is an established fact that one of his great loves was, and still is, science. He has always been dedicated to scientific work, teaching, research, and training men and women in multiple disciplines.  Life lessons fall like ripe fruit from this book, bringing us closer to a concept, a philosophical idea, a scientific digression, which had since been uncovered in numerous notes, articles or books.

Bunge writes about the life experiences in this book with passion, naturalness and with a colloquial frankness, whether they be persecutions, banishment, imprisonment, successes, would-be losses, emotions, relationships, debates, impressions or opinions about people or things.

In his pages we pass by the people with whom he shared a fruitful century of achievements and incredible depths of thought. Everything is remembered with sincerity and humor.

This autobiography is, in truth, Bunge on Bunge, sharing everything that passes through the sieve of his memory, as he would say.

Mario’s many grandchildren are a testament to his proud standing as a family man, and at the age of 96 he gives us a book for everyone: for those who value the memories that hold the trauma of his life as well as for those who share his passion for science and culture. Also, perhaps, for some with whom he has had disagreements or coonntroversy, for he still deserves recognition for being a staunch defender of his convictions.”

Book Review by Michael R. Mattews : http://rdcu.be/n82t

For more books of Mario Bunge, see Book selection

From Alfonso Lizarzaburu

Three years ago I discovered this Wiley-Blackwell Collection Great Myths of Psychology, directed by Scott O. LILIENFELD and Steven Jay LYNN.

            Having finished reading the third volume, I was so enriched that I considered convenient to share with you the presentation of three books of the collection. Why? The best answer to this question is the excerpts I transcribe from the “Preface” to the 1st edition of LILIENFELD, Scott O., Steven Jay LYNN, John RUSCIO, and Barry L. BEYERSTEIN, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior:

“Virtually every day, the news media, television shows and films, and the Internet bombard us with claims regarding a host of psychological topics–brain functioning, psychics, out-of-body experiences, recovered memories, polygraph testing, romantic relationships, parenting, child sexual abuse, mental disorders, real crime, and psychotherapy, to name merely a few. Even a casual stroll through our neighborhood bookstore reveals at least dozens, and often hundreds, of self-help, relationship, recovery, and addiction books that serve up generous portions of advice for steering our path along life’s rocky road. Of course, for those who prefer their psychological advice for free, there’s no end of it on the Web. In countless ways, the popular psychology industry shapes the landscape of the early 21st century world.
Yet to a surprising extent, much of what we believe to be true about psychology isn’t. Although scores of popular psychology sources are readily available in bookstores and at our fingertips online, they’re rife with myths and misconceptions. Indeed, in today’s fast-paced world of information overload, misinformation about psychology is at least as widespread as accurate information. Unfortunately, precious few books are available to assist us with the challenging task of distinguishing fact from fiction in popular psychology. As a consequence, we often find ourselves at the mercy of self-help gurus, television talk show hosts, and radio self-proclaimed mental health experts, many of whom dispense psychological advice that’s a confusing mix of truths, half-truths, and outright falsehoods. Without a dependable tour guide for sorting out psychological myth from reality, we’re at risk for becoming lost in a jungle of misconceptions.
Many of the great myths of popular psychology not only mislead us about human nature, but can also lead us to make unwise decisions in our everyday lives. […]“

Great Myths of Education and Learning (Eng), Great Myths of the Brain(Eng,Spa), 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Hum an Behavior (Eng, Spa)

From Alfonso Lizarzaburu

On January 2016 I had the opportunity to read the OXFAM report An Economy for the 1%. How privilege and power in the economy drive extreme inequality and how this can be stopped.  

The report “shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 38 percent. This has occurred despite the global population increasing by around 400 million people during that period. Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 62 has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76tr. The report also shows how women are disproportionately affected by inequality – of the current ‘62’, 53 are men and just nine are women”.

“Although world leaders have increasingly talked about the need to tackle inequality, and in September agreed a global goal to reduce it, the gap between the richest and the rest has widened dramatically in the past 12 months. Oxfam’s prediction, made ahead of last year’s Davos, that the 1% would soon own more than the rest of us, actually came true in 2015 – a year earlier than expected”.

Last week I received and read Branko Milanović’s last book Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (April 2016).

Milanović is one of the world’s leading economists of inequality (Thomas Piketty) and in this book “continues his lifelong investigation into the past, present and future of inequality, within and between nations, and in the world as a whole” (Angus Deaton).

As underlined by Joseph Stiglitz, “continuing with his extraordinarily important work on the empirics of global inequality, Branko Milanović in this book expands on that work to lay the basis for a more theoretical understanding of the evolution of inequality. The current situation and its tendency have profound political implications.

Are we sitting down on a time bomb?

Milanović says in a nuanced way that “It is hard to imagine that a system with such high inequality could be politically stable. […] If the losers remain disorganized and subject to false consciousness, not much will change. If they do organize themselves and find political champions who could tap into their resentment and get their votes, then it might be possible for the rich countries to put into place policies that would set them on the downward path of the second Kuznets wave. How could this be achieved? (p. 217)

Given the dramatically importance of this subject, I decided to share with you this presentation of Branko Milanović’s work and more specifically of his last book.

Enjoy it very much!

001 Milanovic Branko Global Inequality EngFreSpaEnd 160701

Special Issue. Rediscovering the Ubuntu paradigm in Education, Journal of Lifelong Learning 62, No 1, 2016, Springer

“There could hardly be a greater contrast than between Decartes’contextless mentalist individualism in Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) and the African contextually pregnant, social constructivist relationalism of umuntu umuntu babantu (I am because you are) (Avenstrup 1997. p. 4).”

“Although writing from an African (and more specifically a South African) perspective, Letseka stresses that the ubuntu ethic of caring and sharing can also be found in various Eurasian philosophies. He finds similarities between ubuntu and the German concept “Bildung”2 , whose key advocate was the German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). For Humboldt, Bildung requires interchange between individuals. Bildung starts with the individual embedded in a world that is at the same time that of the differentiated other (Lovlie and Standish 2002, p. 380).

In a paper presented at the conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (C1ES) in Washington DC in March 2015, Thomas Luschei (2015)3 introduced the concept of “convivencia” (peaceful coexistence) as a framework for re-centring education as a moral enterprise. In his paper he discusses convivencia within the context of education and society in Colombia, paying special attention to the Colombian rural school model Escuela Nueva (New School). He discusses several facets of convivencia and finds a number of parallels with the ideas and ideals of ubuntu.

Letseka (2012) points out that the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy of the South African Department of Education (DoE 2001, p. 12) identifies ten fundamental values in the South African constitution that pertain to education. These are: democracy, social justice and equity, equality, non-racism and non-sexism, ubuntu (here defined as human dignity), an open society, accountability, the rule of law, respect and reconciliation. The report states that ubuntu denotes mutual understanding and the active appreciation of the value of human difference (DoE 2001, p. 14).

2 There is no good English translation of the German word “Bildung“. Often the word is therefore used in its German original form even in texts otherwise in English. Bildung is something more than and different from “education”. While the word “education” normally leads our thoughts in the direction of formal schooling, this is not the case with Bildung. A person with Bildung may be self-educated and not have any formal education; but she or he is likely to have refined manners, knowledge and generosity. According to Wilhelm von Humboldt, the purpose of Bildung is to unite the individual and culture in a rich, free and harmonious interplay.”

See :

Nietzsche et la critique de la Bildung

Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. xiv + 834. Cf.:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-economics-and-human-biology-9780199389292?lang=en&cc=fr#
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0199359970/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0199389292/ref=rdr_ext_tmb#reader_0199389292

The Oxford Handbook of Economics and Human Biology provides an extensive and insightful overview of how economic conditions affect human well-being and how human health influences economic outcomes.

Among the topics explored are how variations in height, whether over time, among different socio-economic groups, and in different locations, are important indicators of changes in economic growth and economic development, levels of economic inequality, and economic opportunities for individuals.

The book covers a broad geographic range: Africa, Latin and North America, Asia, and Europe. Its temporal scope ranges from the late Iron Age to the present.

Taking advantage of recent improvements in data and economic methods, the book also explores how humans’ biological conditions influence and are influenced by their economic circumstances, including poverty.

Among the issues addressed are how height, body mass index (BMI), and obesity can affect and are affected by productivity, wages, and wealth. How family environment affects health and well-being is examined, as is the importance of both pre-birth and early childhood conditions for subsequent economic outcomes.

Reflecting this dynamic and expanding area of research, the volume shows that well-being is a salient aspect of economics, and the new toolkit of evidence from biological living standards enhances understanding of industrialization, commercialization, income distribution, the organization of health care, social status, and the redistributive state affect such human attributes as physical stature, weight, and the obesity epidemic in historical and contemporary populations.