Spinoza contro la dittatura militare brasiliana

In this paper we intend to study one component of the vast set of works

dedicated to Spinoza by Brazilian philosopher Marilena Chaui, namely her doctoral

thesis Introduction to the reading of Spinoza defended by Chaui in 1971 at the

University of São Paulo. Even though it was elaborated during the French rediscovery

of Spinoza in the 1960s, the thesis evokes less the libertarian slogans of Paris May 1968

than the dictatorship installed in Brazil beginning in 1964; as the author tells us, the

work was written "under the sign of a critique of the dictatorship" and, in it, philosophy

is practiced as a "critique of that which has been instituted." We would like to present

the way Chaui's particular take on Spinoza provides the philosopher with local,

Brazilian colors, and mobilizes him against the military dictatorship.