The dilemmas of philosophy in Brazil
Tome 89, issue 2, April-June 2026
Sertorio de Amorim e Silva Neto, Foreword
Luiz Alberto Cerqueira, Philosophy in Brazil, or self-consciousness as freedom: The Aristotelianism of the Conimbricenses as the originating philosophical tradition
Contrary to philosophical teaching in colonial Brazil, which was limited to the Aristotelianism underlying Jesuit pedagogy, the idea of Brazilian philosophy presupposes the reception of modern philosophy by the literati in post-independence Brazil. Interpreting the meaning and value of this reception requires consideration of the humanistic intervention of Renaissance scholars in the history of Western philosophical teaching, whose central problem involves the polarization between the “Ancients” and the “Moderns” around fidelity to Aristotle.
Lúcio Álvaro Marques, Brazilian modern philosophy: Targeted analyses of the Encyclopédie (1751) and Manuscript 380 (1756)
Here we analyze the existence of a Brazilian colonial philosophy. To do so, we will compare the structure of the Compendium Philosophicum (1756, hereafter: Ms 380) with Johannes Poncius’ Philosophiae integer (1672); and we will examine the concepts of philosophy, method, and the notion of the history of philosophy in the Encyclopédie’s entry on philosophy (1751) in relation to the respective definitions in the preface to Ms 380.
All this in order to answer the question: Was there a philosophy that could be described as Brazilian within the framework of colonial education?
Ivan Domingues, Metaphilosophical essays
This article aims to introduce to the French-speaking public my book Filosofia no Brasil: Legados e Perspectivas – Ensaios Metafilosóficos (Philosophy in Brazil: Legacies and Perspectives – Metaphilosophical Essays). The focus is on the ethos of the Brazilian philosopher—whether as a free thinker or a philosophy teacher—and five models are outlined using Max Weber’s method of the ideal type. In addition, an appendix is included listing relevant names as well as remarks that may interest a French scholarly audience, including historical data and bibliographic references.
Rainer Guldin, Vilém Flusser: A Brazilian philosopher?
In 1972, the Jewish Czech philosopher and writer Vilém Flusser decided to return to Europe after having spent more than thirty years in Brazil, where he had found refuge in the early 1940s after fleeing Nazi Germany. Before leaving, he wrote a series of texts in which he reflects on the way the multilingual culture and the tropical nature of Brazil had affected his own thinking. In this context, he also discusses what it means to philosophize in Brazil and the nature of philosophy as such.
Alexandre Guimarães Tadeu de Soares & Luciene Torino, The philosophical anthropophagy of Fausto Castilho
This text explores the figure of Fausto Castilho—man of learning, professor, translator, philosopher, and thinker of the concept of Brazil—through the prism of anthropophagy, a key concept of Brazilian modernism developed by Oswald de Andrade, understood here as a philosophical experience born in Brazil. In Castilho’s work, anthropophagy becomes a methodological gesture: To think is to digest, ruminate, and transfigure what comes from the other. It also becomes a critical and creative gesture, both local and universal, transforming Brazilian thought into an active force of decolonization.
Flávia Rios, Amefrican philosophy: The literary works of Lélia Gonzalez
The purpose of this article is to explain the emergence of Amefrican philosophy and to identify its foundations. It argues that this philosophy was produced in in-between worlds and in counter-colonial spaces, such as quilombos, samba schools, and peripheral political collectives, which are forms of collective organization whose power and knowledge are constituted through political practices and practices of bem viver, shaped by rootedness in territories, community ties, and bonds with ancestry.
Evandro Luís Gomes & Itala Maria Loffredo D’Ottaviano, Paraconsistency and quasi-truth: The philosophical legacy of Newton da Costa
Newton da Costa, for his essential, original, and innovative theoretical contributions, stands out as the first great Brazilian logician and philosopher. In this article, we analyze the formation of his thought, the establishment of his pragmatic and pluralist vision of logic, the creation and development of paraconsistent logics, the theory of quasi-truth, and the repercussions of his logico-philosophical contributions.
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Adeline Barbin, La démocratie des techniques (par Valentin Denis)
Jean-Yves Lacoste, Recherches sur le dire et le voir (par Laurent Gallois )
Rahel Jaeggi, Critique des formes de vie (par Jean-Baptiste Ghins)
Corine Pelluchon, L’être et la mer (par Jeanne Marchand)
Philippe Descola, Politiques du faire-monde (par Bastien Massé)