Chasing reality : strife over realism / Mario Bunge.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This work defends a realist view of universals, kinds, possibilities, and dispositions, while rejecting contemporary accounts of these that are couched in terms of modal logic and 'possible worlds.'

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Bunge (McGill Univ.) offers an extended statement and defense of "hylorealism," a version of realism combined with an emergent, nonreductive materialism and scientism, understood as the view that the scientific method provides the best avenue to knowledge. This position is one that Bunge has developed and defended in many books and articles published over the last 50 years, e.g., Philosophy in Crisis (CH, Jan'02, 39-2729). While in much of his more recent work Bunge has focused on problems specific to the philosophy of the social sciences, and in particular on criticism of social constructivist antirealism, here he returns to fundamental problems in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science, using an extended defense of realism as the guiding theme that draws this material together. Although accessible only to readers well grounded in academic philosophy and written in a polemical style that is sometimes less than charitable to antirealist positions, Chasing Reality is a serious book. It ranges widely across the natural sciences, social sciences and philosophy, critically engaging recent work by leading figures in all of these areas. Name and subject indexes make this a valuable reference book. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. R. Hudelson University of Wisconsin--Superior