Munévar, Gonzalo 1945-

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MUNÉVAR, Gonzalo 1945-

PERSONAL:

Born 1945, in Barranquilla, Colombia; son of Gonzalo and Delia Munévar; married second wife, Susan Greenshields (a clinical psychologist); children: Ryan (first marriage). Education: California State University, B.A., 1970, M.A., 1971; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1975. Politics: "19th Century liberal, in the tradition of J. S. Mill." Hobbies and other interests: Soccer, classical music, movies, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication, Lawrence Technological University, 21000 West Ten Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48075-1058. Agent—Peter Scolney, 100 WIlshire Blvd., Suite 1300, Santa Monica, CA 90401. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator, consultant, and writer. San Francisco State University, lecturer, 1975-76; University of Nebraska, Omaha, assistant professor, 1976-85, professor, 1985-86, Nebraska Foundation Professor of Philosophy, 1986-89; Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, professor of history and philosophy of science, 1989-97; Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan, professor and chair, Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication, 1999—. Stanford University, Stanford, California, visiting associate professor of philosophy, faculty fellow at Stanford Humanities Center, 1983-84; University of Newcastle, Australia, visiting research professor in evolutionary epistemology, summer, 1986, summer, 1987; Instituto de Filosofía, Madrid, Spain, visiting research professor, fall, 1987; Universidad de Barcelona, Spain, visiting research professor, winter, 1988; Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, visiting research professor, spring, 1988; University of Edinburgh, Scotland, fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, summer, 1989; Kobe Shodai University, Kobe, Japan, visiting professor, spring-summer, 1993; University of Washington, Seattle, visiting professor of philosophy, spring, 1994; University of California, Irvine, visiting professor of philosophy, 1997-99.

MEMBER:

American Philosophical Association, Philosophy of Science Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished Research Award, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1986; Ethel Wattis Kimball fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center; Black Heron Press Award for social fiction, 1999, for The Master of Fate.

WRITINGS:

Radical Knowledge: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature and Limits of Science, with foreword by Paul K. Feyerabend, Hackett (Indianapolis, IN), 1981.

(Editor) Beyond Reason: Essays on the Philosophy of Paul Feyerabend, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston, MA), 1991.

(Editor) Spanish Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston, MA), 1996.

Evolution and the Naked Truth: A Darwinian Approach to Philosophy, Ashgate (Brookfield, VT), 1998.

The Master of Fate (novel), Black Heron Press, 1999.

(Editor, with John Preston and David Lamb) The Worst Enemy of Science?: Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Contributor of essays in philosophy, short stories, poetry, and literary criticism to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Alex and The Night of the Red Moon (novels); The Dimming of Starlight: The Philosophy of Space Exploration; Loose Ends (screenplay); A Theory of Wonder: A Naturalistic Account in the Revolution in the Philosophy of Science; adapting Gunther Stent's Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology as a screenplay.

SIDELIGHTS:

Interdisciplinary scholar, professor, and author Gonzalo Munévar has taught philosophy, history, science, literature, mathematics, and writing at the college level. His particular field of interest is the philosophy of science. A native of Colombia, he has been a visiting professor at universities throughout the world. Munévar has written and edited several books on philosophy and is the author of an award-winning novel, The Master of Fate, which is set in his native country.

Munévar's first book, Radical Knowledge: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature and Limits of Science, explores the theories of Paul Feyerabend, Karl Popper, Konrad Lorenz, Ernst Mach, Herbert Spencer, Henri Poincaré, and others in developing a discourse on the limitations of the cumulative body of scientific knowledge as a product of biologically based human intelligence. Steven Walt, in a somewhat negative review for Ethics, stated that "Munévar's treatment is superficial and too brief throughout" and that his suggestion of institutional rationality "is handled in four paragraphs despite its importance" to the author's argument. Allen Scult, in a review for the Quarterly Journal of Speech, concluded: "Munévar, like most evolutionary epistemologists, is bound to stress the importance of encouraging the multiplication of competing scientific perceptions. Likewise, he is driven to call for means whereby even initially implausible theories can be protected from premature refutation." A contributor to Choice described the book as a "lively discussion of the limits of scientific knowledge … in the tradition of T. S. Kuhn."

Munévar's first novel, The Master of Fate, is the story of a middle-class Colombian teenager, Oscar Moreira, growing up during the 1950s and attending a Catholic boarding school in Bogatá. When Oscar's father's business fails and the family is beset with financial troubles, Oscar reacts to the changes in a more negative way than does his brother, Homero. As his father takes out his frustrations on Oscar and Homero and his mother struggles to maintain peace and sanity, Oscar adopts a stubborn and aloof manner that alienates those around him. Forced to attend a national university rather than the elite school he had hoped for, he falls behind in his studies. Homero, on the other hand, chooses to make the best of the family's losses. When his father dies, Oscar must confront his choices and try to salvage his future. A reviewer for Black Heron Press described the novel as "both existential and realistic." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the "often stunningly blunt dialogue of teenagers exchanging boasts and sexual secrets" and concluded that "Oscar's inner life registers as an uncompromising study of the psychological origins of resentment."

Munévar also coedited The Worst Enemy of Science?: Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend, a book of essays in memory of the philosopher Paul K. Feyerabend, about whom the author has frequently written. Alfred Nordmann, in a review for Ethics, commented that "Feyerabend's views become more challenging with the quality of the questions put to him."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Directory of American Scholars, ninth edition, Volume 4: Philosophy, Religion, and Law, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Choice, November, 1982, review of Radical Knowledge: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature and Limits of Science, p. 447.

Ethics, January, 1983, Steven Walt, review of Radical Knowledge, p. 419; October, 2001, Alfred Nordmann, review of The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend, p. 197.

Publishers Weekly, November 15, 1999, review of The Master of Fate, p. 55.

Quarterly Journal of Speech, August, 1984, Allen Scult, review of Radical Knowledge, pp. 307-309.