The concept of emancipation in the philosophy of Sueli Carneiro

• Grant number: 24/23174-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Brazilian Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Yara Adario Frateschi
• Grantee: Vinícius Santana Cerqueira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to investigate the concept of emancipation in the philosophy of Sueli Carneiro. My main source of research is the book Deployment of raciality: the construction of the other as non-being as the foundation of being (2023). Although the philosopher argues that Brazilian black resistance built strategies to fight anti-black racism, Carneiro does not show a precise definition of the concept of emancipation. My hypothesis is that the philosopher seems to formulate a multidimensional concept of emancipation, which arises from the relationship between the diagnostic dimension of anti-black racism, explained in the concept of deployment of raciality, and the political agency dimension of Brazilian black resistance, characterized by the testimonies of exponents of the Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU) and black womens movement, such as Geledés - Black Women Institute. It seems to me that the concept of emancipation refers to the subjective, ontological, epistemic, moral, economic and political aspects. To this end, firstly, I analyze the diagnostic dimension of anti-black racism focusing on the concepts of deployment of raciality, racial contract and epistemicide. Secondly, I examine the way in which Carneiro, reflecting upon the political organization of black resistance, formulates a new ethical theory (which she calls renewed ethics), in which self-care takes place as care for others. Thus, I seek to understand in what sense Carneiro mobilizes the concept of emancipation in her conceptual framework.