A Reconstruction of the Theory of Ecology Based on Mario Bunge’s Mechanistic Epistemology and Systemic Ontology

Abstract

This work proposes a structural reconstruction of the main laws, hypotheses and models sustaining ecological theory, by taking into account Mario Bunge’s mechanistic epistemology and systemic ontology. In order to do this, in the first sections, we will develop Mario Bunge’s philosophical principles, and in the following sections, we will use these principles to epistemologically analyse ecology. Ecology has taken the theory of evolution by natural selection as a theoretical framework. Through this theory, ecology explains the relations between organisms of the same and different species, and the environment. Ecology has constructed a theory that allows coordination of all the levels involved in the theory; and to link and relate all the levels of the reality it studies, thereby constituting a practical, applicable and improvable theory.