Cienciaes.com: Religion and human evolution. We spoke with Gustavo Bueno

2020-08-30 18:07:27

Gustavo Bueno was a Spanish philosopher considered by some to be one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th and early 20th centuries. XXI. His work is enormous and in it a constant interchange between science and the history of philosophy takes place. Years ago I had the opportunity to chat with him about a fascinating topic: Religion in human evolution. Personal circumstances and technical problems that arose at that time made it impossible to publish the interview. Gustavo Bueno passed away on August 7, 2016 and we have been able to recover that interview, recorded before his death, and it has now become an unpublished document of the philosopher, a document that we share with all of you today in this new chapter of Hablando con Scientists.

Gustavo Bueno Martínez was born in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja, in 1924 and died in Asturias on August 7, 2016. Since 1970 he has been developing a system that he later called “philosophical materialism” that considers that philosophy is not a science nor is it wisdom without more, however it does not lose its character of rigorous knowledge. This conception is what encourages us to approach the ideas of the philosopher, some thoughts that he himself left reflected in two of his works: What is philosophy? y What is science? In these works, the author defends that philosophy is a second degree knowledge, which therefore presupposes other previous knowledge, “first degree” such as technical, political, mathematical, biological knowledge… Philosophy is not a science , but she is not the mother of science either, a mother who, once her daughters are grown, could consider herself retired after thanking her for the services rendered. On the contrary, philosophy presupposes a sufficiently mature state of science and technology so that it can begin to establish itself as a defined discipline.

Among his most important books should be noted “Materialist Essays”, “Theory of Category Closure” (which contains the theory of the science of philosophical materialism), “The Divine Animal” (where his materialist theory of religion is exposed), “First essay on the categories of Political Science” (in which he designs his theory of politics and the State), “The meaning of life” (where the main ideas that affect Ethics, Morality and Law are discussed) , “The myth of culture”, etc.

The interview that we offer today is preceded by a conference by Gustavo Bueno that was published in the work “Science and Society” under the title “Religion and human evolution.” In that work, the philosopher affirms: “There will be no shortage of those who, before the headline statement, twist the gesture and sentence: this subject is, due to its breadth and generality, intractable; It is, therefore, poorly posed and properly lacks sense… How to carry out any rational approach to a subject referring to Ideas as general as “religion” or “human evolution”? Can one speak of religion, in general, and not of the very different things that are covered by this ambiguous name, which confuses the most heterogeneous contents, the diverse values ​​of the sacred, and the most diverse periods?

Regarding the second term of the statement, “human evolution”, the philosopher says:
And can one speak of “human evolution” with any sense? It would be possible to speak at most, and perhaps metaphorically, of “evolution” referring to the different categories of human culture –evolution of political systems, evolution of the automobile, evolution of the symphony orchestra…– but how can we speak of evolution in general? human, which would entail a kind of evolution of all mixed cultural categories?

It is not my intention to reveal the content of the interview, I invite you to listen to it.

References:
Religion in human evolution Science and Society, Nobel Editions 2001, pages 61-105.