Abstract

URTADO-PARRADO, CAMILO; VIRUES-ORTEGA, JAVIER; MARTIN, TOBY L  and  JULIO, FLÁVIA. Causes of Behavioral Processes: An Interview with Mario A. Bunge. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2011, vol.10, n.3, pp.965-972. ISSN 1657-9267.

Mario A. Bunge is one of the most prominent philosophers and humanists of our time. His vast record of publications has covered, among others, episte-mology, ontology, ethics, philosophy of natural and social sciences, philosophy of technology, and philosophy of mind. A topic that intersects many of these areas and is recurrent in Bunge's work is causality. His analyses of the causal principle, and the redefinition of determinism into near-determinism have been applied to different philosophical issues that range from the causal role of neuronal functioning to the laws of social phenomena. Bunge has criticized functionalism, cognitivism, computationalism, behaviourism, and idealism in their attempt to explain human and non-human behaviour. This article results from an extensive interview held with Dr. Bunge in which we discussed a variety of conceptual issues related to the notions of causality and explanation in psychology.

Keywords : Mario Bunge; causality; causation; explanation; psychology; philosophy; behavioural sciences.

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