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Under theocracies and other authoritarian regimes, the rulers are the moral authorities. Under genuine democracy some basic values are entrenched in the legal system, which is expected to be under democratic vigilance, and others are left to the person or the group, which ideally debate moral problems in a rational, free and cooperative manner.

Mario Bunge

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Mario Bunge
Age: 100 †
Born: 1919
Born: September 21
Died: 2020
Died: February 25
Essayist
Geneticist
Philosopher
Physicist
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Mario Augusto Bunge
Problem
Problems
Debate
Authoritarian
Persons
Democracy
Genuine
Vigilance
Person
System
Basic
Authorities
Moral
Expected
Regimes
Theocracy
Values
Group
Rulers
Entrenched
Free
Democratic
Legal
Cooperative
Left
Authority
Manner
Cooperatives
Others
Groups
Rational
Ideally

More quotes by Mario Bunge

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Science is morally neutral, but social science shows us that some moral codes are better than others.
Mario Bunge
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Communication accompanies social transactions and can instruct or stultify, mobilize or intimidate, but it is no substitute for production, collaboration and fight.
Mario Bunge
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Of course you cannot free yourself from the laws of nature but the laws of nervous systems are not the same as the physical laws.
Mario Bunge
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I pity the babies whose mothers are busy texting trivialities instead of playing with their children I pity the children who are tethered to their cell phones instead of playing ball I pity the adolescents who are wasting their best years holding one of those artefacts instead of the hand of another young person.
Mario Bunge
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In any event, I don't believe in instant philosophy, because interesting problems take a long time to understand and work out. Just think of the problems of truth and justice.
Mario Bunge
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Most contemporary philosophers are conservative and eager to keep their jobs.
Mario Bunge
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Few if any political philosophers have had the courage of tackling the Cold War. Even the best of them have kept silent or have stated some bromides glossing over the serious shortcomings of our side, such as racism, social injustice, extreme income disparities, the exploitation of the Third World, and environmental degradation.
Mario Bunge
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I believe that modern science supports free will, in showing that the brain can act spontaneously, not only in response to external stimuli.
Mario Bunge
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Even philosophies who have denounced pseudosciences like psychoanalysis, have condoned pseudoscientific economic theories like neoclassical microeconomics. It is far safer and easier to criticize Freud and Jung than to criticize Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, because the latter are backed by political movements whereas the former are not.
Mario Bunge
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Philosophy can help laymen spot and reject the numerous pseudoscientific beliefs that survive in the media, such as the fantasies of psychoanalysts, evolutionary psychologists, and economic equilibrium theorists.
Mario Bunge
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Whereas science elicits changes in order to know, technology knows in order to elicit changes.
Mario Bunge
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The motto of science is not just Pauca but rather Plurima ex paucissimis - the most out of the least.
Mario Bunge
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All genuine philosophy transcends national boundaries. Patriotic philosophies are just nationalist ideologies.
Mario Bunge
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All philosophers can do is to abstain from helping the aggressors and to enjoin social scientists to tell the truth instead of joining the choir of liars and hypocrites.
Mario Bunge
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In the scientific community you find competent teachers and original researchers, just as in the musical community you find many good performers but very few good composers.
Mario Bunge
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The fact is that all the important political philosophers and scientists from the great Aristotle on, with the exception of those of the French Enlightenment and Mill, have sided with the powers that be.
Mario Bunge
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There is a continuum between science and philosophy. As Fichte said (but did not practice), philosophy should be the science of sciences.
Mario Bunge
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All the electronic devices are weakening the social bonds. Sociologists and psychologists should study this serious threat instead of repeating that communication is the cement of society.
Mario Bunge
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To me, work is not a burden but my main hobby. This is why I always take work with me when I go on holidays. Moreover, that's when new projects occur to me: while contemplating beautiful landscapes or seascapes.
Mario Bunge
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From a historical viewpoint, religion is just a kind of superstition, and from a political viewpoint it is a tool of social control.
Mario Bunge