Paulo Freire and the Western Marxism in Brazil: On the ideas of Cultura do Silêncio e Conscientização

• Grant number: 24/08788-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Brazilian Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Eduardo Arantes
• Grantee: André Sznajder
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the concepts of "Cultura do Silêncio" and "Conscientização" developed by Paulo Freire between the publication of his thesis, Educação e atualidade brasileira, in 1959, and the Pedagogia do oprimido, dated 1968. Consequently, it will be essential to reconstruct the role played by the philosophical thought on his theoretical changes during this period. The study will assess how Freire assimilated of marxist philosophical thought in the Pedagogia do oprimido, based on Gyory Lukács's critique of reification in History and class consciousness. Hence, it will be necessary to investigate both Freire's continuities and the shifts concerning the "development ideology" formulated by Álvaro Vieira Pinto, that significantly influenced Freire's early theoretical work. Ultimately, the analysis of his intellectual changes will lead the study to some hypothesis regarding the political and intellectual mobilization process during brazilian 1960s and the position of Freire as a witness of populism's fate, seeking answers to its collapse within the context of brazilian modernization.