Cognitive colonialism: Nationality bias in Brazilian academic philosophy

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to test for nationality bias among members of the Brazilian philosophical community. Faculty members and postgraduate students from philosophy departments at seven Brazilian universities evaluated texts attributed to authors of European and Latin American nationalities. Results showed a clear preference for French nationality over Brazilian. They were inconclusive, however, when contrasting other Latin American nationalities with European nationalities, which likely relates to the academic background of the participants. These overall results support the claim that Brazilian academic philosophers are highly critical of Brazilians who produce theories of their own. The paper calls on philosophers to carefully consider the ways in which Eurocentrism impacts their very ability to reason. K E Y W O R D SBrazilian philosophy, epistemic injustice, geopolitics of knowledge, implicit bias

Philosophical Research in Brazil: A Structural Topic Modeling Approach with a focus on Temporal and Gender Trends

“…Questions about the possible existence of a distinct Brazilian philosophy, its origin, the influence of colonization and the Western canon, and the presence of "true" Brazilian philosophers and philosophical groups have haunted intellectuals since at least Sylvio Romero's essay, A philosophia no Brasil -ensaio crítico [Philosophy in Brazil -a critical essay], dating back to 1878. This ongoing debate continues to be fueled by a series of recent publications exploring the history of Brazilian philosophy and the academic profile of Brazilian philosophers (Cabrera 2013;Wuensch 2016;Domingues 2017;Canhada 2020;Margutti 2013Margutti , 2020Pugliese 2019Pugliese , 2020Peruzzo Jr. and Oliveira 2023;Seabra et al 2023).…”