Bachelor of Philosophy

The first period, which goes from the foundation in 1934 until about 1957, corresponds to the time of the French Missions, that is, of French professors who came here with the specific task of creating and establishing the basic guidelines of the course, as well as training future students. teachers. The second phase, which we would place between 1958 and 1968, corresponds to the consolidation of the style of work that gave the Department its specific character in the philosophical-university panorama of the country. Under the influence, at the same time diversified and confluent, of Granger, Guéroult, Goldschmidt, technical and critical standards of philosophical work and academic structuring were established, favored by the politically open posture of the then professors João Cruz Costa and Lívio Teixeira.

The third phase begins with the political crisis of 1968, when the impeachments came to jeopardize the very survival of the course. The University Reform imposed a rigid structure on graduation that forced the introduction of new disciplines and compliance with quantitative training guidelines (credits).

The style of work, consolidated in the second period mentioned above, prescribed technical and critical training objectives for graduation, centered on an analytical approach to the History of Philosophy, which aimed to provide students with theoretical instruments for understanding the internal logic of philosophical systems. The dominant concern was training for research according to standards inherited from recent French historiography. Before the University Reform, such work could be developed intensively, since the curriculum consisted of a relatively small number of disciplines, with a small weekly workload and taught over a year. These characteristics were combined with strict requirements regarding the reading load and in-depth work with the systems and authors addressed in the disciplines.