Raimundo de Farias Brito (1862–1917), born in the state of Ceará, is regarded as one of the most original thinkers in Brazilian philosophy of his period. At a time dominated by positivism and a scientifically inspired materialism, Farias Brito developed a spiritualism of his own, in which consciousness is taken as the fundamental reality and as the true starting point of philosophical reflection. His strongly metaphysical work is directed against the reduction of reality to mere material mechanism and seeks to place the problem of spirit once more at the centre of philosophy. Although less read outside specialist circles, he exerted a lasting influence on the Brazilian Catholic and spiritualist thought of the following generations.
Key Concepts
- Primacy of consciousness: the thesis that consciousness is the first and indubitable datum, the reality from which all philosophical inquiry must begin, rather than a mere epiphenomenon of matter.
- Spiritualism: the philosophical orientation affirming the irreducibility of spirit and inner life to matter, set against purely mechanical and materialist explanations of reality.
- Critique of materialism and positivism: a systematic challenge to the currents that dominated the Brazilian intellectual scene, especially for reducing spiritual life to physical processes or denying the legitimacy of metaphysics.
- Finality of the world (A Finalidade do Mundo, 3 vols., 1895, 1899, 1905): an inquiry into the meaning and finality of existence in which Farias Brito articulates his metaphysics of spirit.
- The inner world (O Mundo Interior, 1914): an examination of inner life and consciousness as the proper domain of philosophy, deepening the primacy of spirit.
Influenced by
- The European spiritualist and metaphysical tradition
- Nineteenth-century philosophical debates on matter, spirit and consciousness
- Philosophical critiques of the positivism and materialism of his time
Influenced
- Twentieth-century Brazilian Catholic and spiritualist thought
- Jackson de Figueiredo — who acknowledged the importance of his work
- Brazilian reflection on metaphysics and the philosophy of consciousness
Works
His principal work is the trilogy A Finalidade do Mundo (vol. I, 1895; vol. II, 1899; vol. III, 1905), complemented by O Mundo Interior (1914). In these writings he develops a metaphysical spiritualism focused on the problem of consciousness and the meaning of existence.
See also
Tobias Barreto Auguste Comte Bergson