Jesús Mosterín (24 September 1941 – 4 October 2017) was a leading Spanish philosopher and a thinker of broad spectrum, often at the frontier between science and philosophy.
Biography He was born in Bilbao in 1941. He studied in Spain, Germany, and the USA. Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Barcelona since 1983, he founded there an active Department of Logic, Philosophy and History of Science. From 1996, he was Research Professor at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC). He was a fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science in Pittsburgh and a member of several international academies. He played a crucial role in the introduction of mathematical logic, analytical philosophy and philosophy of science in Spain and Latin America. Besides his academic duties, he fulfilled important functions in the international publishing industry, especially in the Salvat and Hachette groups. He was actively involved in the protection of wildlife and its defense in the mass media. He died on October 4th 2017 from pleural mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos.
Logic Mosterín acquired his initial logical formation at the Institut für mathematische Logik und Grundlagenforschung in Münster (Germany). He published the first modern and rigorous textbooks of logicMosterín, Jesús (1970, 1983). Lógica de primer orden. Barcelona: Ariel. and set theoryMosterín, Jesús (1971, 1980). Teoría axiomática de conjuntos. Barcelona: Ariel. in Spanish. He has worked on topics of first and second order logic, axiomatic set theory, computability and complexity.For example, Mosterín, Jesús (2004). “How Set Theory Impinges on Logic”. In Paul Weingartner (ed.), Alternative Logics: Do Sciences Need Them? Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer, 2004, pp. 55-63. . He has shown how the uniform digitalization of each type of symbolic object (such as chromosomes, texts, pictures, movies or pieces of music) can be considered to implement a certain positional numbering system. This result gives a precise meaning to the notion that the set of natural numbers constitutes a universal library and indeed a universal data base.Mosterín, Jesús (1997). “The natural numbers as a universal library”. In Philosophy of Mathematics Today (ed. by E. Agazzi and G. Darvas), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht-Boston-London, pp. 305-317. . Mosterín has edited the first edition of the complete works of Kurt Gödel in any language.Gödel, Kurt (1981, 2006). Obras completas. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. Together with Thomas Bonk, he has edited an unpublished book of Rudolf Carnap on axiomatics (in German).Carnap, Rudolf (2000). Untersuchungen zur Allgemeinen Axiomatik (Bonk, Thomas and Jesús Mosterín, eds.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. 167 pp. . He has also delved in the historical and biographical aspects of the development of modern logic, as shown in his original work on the lives of Gottlob Frege, Georg Cantor, Bertrand Russell, John von Neumann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, intertwined with a formal analysis of their main technical contributions.Mosterín, Jesús (2000, 2007). Los lógicos. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.
Philosophy of science
Concepts and theories in science
Karl Popper tried to establish a criterion of demarcation between science and metaphysics, but the speculative turn taken by certain developments in theoretical physics has contributed to muddle the issue again. Mosterín has been concerned with the question of the reliability of theories and claims. He makes a distinction between the standard core of a scientific discipline, that at a certain point in time should only include relatively reliable and empirically supported ideas, and the cloud of speculative hypotheses surrounding it. Part of the theoretical progress consists in the incorporation of newly tested hypotheses of the cloud to the standard core. In this connection, he has analyzed epistemic notions like detection and observation. Observation, but not detection, is accompanied by awareness. Detection is always mediated by technological instruments, but observation only sometimes (like glasses in vision). The signals received by detectors have to be transduced into types of energy accessible to our senses.Mosterín, Jesús (2001). "Technology-mediated observation". In Hans Lenk & Matthias Maring (ed.), Advances and Problems in the Philosophy of Technology. Münster-Hamburg-London: Lit Verlag, 2001, pp. 181-193. . Following the path open by Patrick Suppes, Mosterín has paid much attention to the structure of metric concepts, because of their indispensable mediating role at the interface between theory and observation where reliability is tested. He has also made contributions to the study of mathematical modeling and of the limits of the axiomatic method in the characterization of real-world structures.Mosterín, Jesús (2000, 2008). Conceptos y teorías en la ciencia. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. The real world is extremely complex, and sometimes the best we can do is to apply the method of theoretical science: to pick up in the set-theoretical universe a mathematical structure with some formal similarities with the situation we are interested in, and use it as a model of that parcel of the world. Together with Roberto Torretti, Mosterín has written a uniquely comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary of logic and philosophy of science.Mosterín, Jesús and Roberto Torretti (2002, 2010). Diccionario de Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. 2nd revised edition (2010), 692 pp.
Philosophy of biology Besides actively participating in the current discussions on evolutionary theory and genetics, Mosterín has also tackled issues like the definition of life itself or the ontology of biological organisms and species. Following in Aristotle’s and Schrödinger’s footsteps, he has been asking the simple question: what is life? He has analyzed the main proposed definitions, based on metabolism, reproduction, thermodynamics, complexity and evolution, and found all of them wanting. It is true that all organisms on Earth share many characteristics, from the encoding of genetic information in DNA to the storage of energy in ATP, but these common features merely reflect the inheritance from a common ancestor that possibly acquired them in a random way. From that point of view, our biology is the parochial science of life on Earth, rather than a universal science of life in general. Such a general biology seems impossible, as long as we do not detect and come to know other forms of life in the galaxy (if they exist).Mosterín, Jesús(1996). “Life Elsewhere”. In Philosophy of Biology Today: 1st International Conference on Philosophy of Science. Universidad de Vigo, 1996, pp. 7-18. Concerning the ontological thesis of Michael Ghiselin and David Hull on the individuality of biological species, Mosterín shows that they are neither classes nor individuals in the usual meaning of these words. He tries to extend and make more precise the available conceptual framework of the discussion. Specifically, he shows the formal equivalence of the set-theoretical and the mereological (or part and individual) approach, so that everything that can be said about the classes can be translated into the jargon of individuals, and the other way around.Jesús Mosterín (1988). Ontological Queries and Evolutionary Processes: Comments on Hull. Biology & Philosophy (1988), n. 2, p. 204-209. See also: Jesús Mosterín (1994). “Mereology, Set Theory, and Biological Ontology”. In D. Prawitz and D. Westerståhl (eds.): Logic and Philosophy of Science in Uppsala. Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. P. 511-524. . All these concerns converge in his recent philosophy of animality, which combines the ontology of animals as paradigmatic individuals with the insights and results of biological research. This general theory of animals provides a solid foundation for the development of anthropology, conceived as the science of human primates.Jesús Mosterín (2013). El reino de los animales. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Philosophy of cosmology
The role of our scientific image of the universe in a rational world view has always caught the attention of Mosterín. He has devoted much work to the epistemic analysis of cosmological theories and of the reliability of their claims. Together with John Earman, he has undertaken a thorough critical review of the paradigm of cosmic inflation.Earman, John & Jesús Mosterín. (1999). “A critical look at inflationary cosmology”. Philosophy of Science, 66 (March 1999), pp. 1-50. Earman and Mosterín conclude that, despite the widespread influence of the inflationary paradigm and the fact that it does not contradict any known results, there are as yet no good grounds for admitting any of the models of inflation into the standard core of scientific cosmology. He has also dealt with the role of speculation in cosmology.Mosterín, Jesús (2000). "Observation, Construction and Speculation in Cosmology". In The Reality of the Unobservable, ed. by E. Agazzi & M. Pauri, Dordrecht-Boston: Kluwer Academic Pub, pp. 219-231. . In particular, Mosterín has shown the multiple misunderstandings underlying the so-called anthropic principle and the use of anthropic explanations in cosmology. Mosterín concludes that "in its weak version, the anthropic principle is a mere tautology, which does not allow us to explain anything or to predict anything that we did not already know. In its strong version, it is a gratuitous speculation".Mosterín, Jesús. (2005). "Anthropic Explanations in Cosmology." In P. Háyek, L. Valdés and D. Westerstahl (ed.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of the LMPS. London: King’s College Publications, pp. 441-473. . Mosterín also points to the flawed “anthropic” inferences from the assumption of an infinity of worlds to the existence of one like ours:
Practical philosophy
Theory of rationality Kant had distinguished theoretical from practical reason. Rationality theorist Jesús Mosterín makes a parallel distinction between theoretical and practical rationality, although, according to him, reason and rationality are not the same: reason would be a psychological faculty, whereas rationality is an optimizing strategy.Mosterín, Jesús (2008). Lo mejor posible: Racionalidad y acción humana. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2008. Humans are not rational by definition, but they can think and behave rationally or not, depending on whether they apply, explicitly or implicitly, the strategy of theoretical and practical rationality to the thoughts they accept and to the actions they perform. Theoretical rationality has a formal component that reduces to logical consistency and a material component that reduces to empirical support, relying on our inborn mechanisms of signal detection and interpretation. Mosterín distinguishes between involuntary and implicit belief, on the one hand, and voluntary and explicit acceptance, on the other.Mosterín, Jesús (2002). “Acceptance Without Belief”. Manuscrito, vol. XXV, pp. 313-335. Theoretical rationality can more properly be said to regulate our acceptances than our beliefs. Practical rationality is the strategy for living one's best possible life, achieving your most important goals and your own preferences in as far as possible. Practical rationality has also a formal component, that reduces to Bayesian decision theory, and a material component, rooted in human nature (lastly, in our genome).
Ethics, animals and rights