Brazilian philosophy as search for cultural identity in the work of Henrique de Lima Vaz

Abstract

Henrique de Lima Vazis one of the Brazilian thinkers responsible for many conquests in the context of the expansion of education in the country. His interpretative analysis of philosophy comes from the social diagnostic, cultural and historic not only from Brazil, but from all of western philosophy. This article’s objective is to analyze the concept of Brazilian cultural identity, through Lima Vaz’s texts, searching for elements in Brazilian philosophy that create the roots of thought in contemporary Brazil. The problem consists in identifying the substrate in a historical and social context which makes Brazilian philosophy to be so different from the other western philosophies and how it relates and develops as the search for a Brazilian cultural identity. It’s possible to deduce that the process of Brazilian cultural identity still suffers of external influence and remains in development.