João Cruz Costa (1904-1978)
He was a rather short man, somewhat plump. When I went to visit him in his modest home in the suburbs of that vast urban expanse of São Paulo, he was usually seated in a large comfortable armchair.
When I knew him he had been forcibly retired from his professorship at the University of São Paulo, Brazil’s premier academic institution. Why? Because the country’s generals, caught up in the fury of the Cold War, and egged on by ambitious civilian politicians, thought a kindly professor of Philosophy must be a dangerous “subversive.” Those were the days in the early and mid 1960’s when I saw firsthand the painful consequences when a democracy breaks down. This was a rude introduction to the realities of my newly adopted country.
Why was I frequenting a philosopher? Not so surprising, if you know my academic background. As an undergraduate, I majored in Philosophy. It was during the Korean War (the draft was bearing down) and I wrote my senior thesis on the ethics of pacifism. Going on to Oxford, I continued my study of philosophy, inter allia.
As a young scholar wanting to get a good grasp on Brazil’s past, I knew I would have to identify the ideas—social, political and ethical—that influenced the only Portuguese-speaking land in the Western Hemisphere. Some trends were obvious: Catholicism, monarchism and, later, liberalism.
One of the strands that was new to me was Positivism. Even though I had studied French history, that doctrine had eluded me (Attention: here comes that Gallic influence again).
In the nineteenth century, Auguste Comte was very alive and well in the tropics. There was a Positivist Church in Rio and Porto Alegre (quite influential in the politics of Rio Grande do Sul). I very gingerly visited the Rio temple and the staff kindly furnished me with a complete set of their publications. I quickly gathered them up and sent them to the University of Wisconsin Library where they would await the perusal of my students.
Positivism had penetrated quite deeply into urban Brazil in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It even gained hold in the ranks of the Army Officer Corps and played a role in the overthrow of the Empire in 1889. It also seemed to have played a role in the spread of Marxism among Brazilian intellectuals. It laid the way for the fierce rational attack on capitalism.
Professor Cruz Costa had written insightfully on Positivism, as well as many other topics. His History of Ideas in Brazil was a precious source.
My host had a son with what we would today call severe health problems and so the father bought a ferocious pitbull on the property to protect his progeny.
The professor and I often discussed politics (dismal at the time). He had vivid memories of the ideological battles of recent decades of history. I never ceased to learn from my “retired” friend.
Further Readings
Comte, Auguste, and Gertrud Lenzer. Auguste Comte and Positivism: The Essential Writings. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Costa, João Cruz. Contribuição à história das idéias no Brasil: o desenvolvimento da filosofia no Brasil e a evolução histórica nacional. Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1956.
Costa, João Cruz. O Positivismo na República: notas sobre a historia do Positivismo no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1956.
João Cruz Costa was born in the city of São Paulo. He worked as Professor of Philosophy at the University of São Paulo from 1945 to 1965. In 1956, he wrote Contribuição à história das idéias no Brasil, an important text that emphasized the necessity of national autonomy and signified the evolution of philosophical ideas in Brazil.