Yasmin Nobre Da S. Cavalacante

This paper examines the possibilities and challenges of defining a Brazilian philosophy within a decolonial and feminist framework. While Brazilian philosophy occupies a marginal position in university curricula across Brazil, a wealth of philosophical work is produced in the country. Nonetheless, the classification of this body of thought as distinctly ‘Brazilian’ remains a matter of critical and ongoing debate. We argue that this debate reflects broader struggles over national identity, coloniality, and epistemic self-determination and we propose a vision for what Brazilian philosophy could and should be, drawing inspiration from dialogues with other non-Western philosophical traditions such as Latin American, African and Chinese philosophies as well as the efforts of feminists movements to broaden the philosophical canon. Our proposal of Brazilian philosophy engages with Brazil’s national identity by emphasizing Lélia Gonzalez’s category of amefricanity (2020), which refers to the Indigenous and African heritage in Brazil. In doing so, we present both Brazilian Indigenous systems of thought and the African-diasporic philosophies produced in the country as constituent parts of Brazilian philosophy.