Background
Cruz Costa, Joáo was born on February 13, 1904 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Cruz Costa, Joáo was born on February 13, 1904 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Sorbonne; both the Medical School and the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Sao Paulo.
Professor of Philosophy, University of Sao Paulo.
Cruz Costa analyses the history of nineteethand twentieth-century Brazilian thought in terms of how European ideas were assimilated, adapted or ‘deformed’ to create a unique intellectual history in Brazil. He rejects the notion that Brazilian thought is necessarily derivative of European thought. Instead, he demonstrates that philosophy in Brazil has usually been linked to action, and that thought in Latin America has not had the luxury of ‘ivory towers’ where ‘extravagant theories' could be developed without regard for social and political situations. Cruz Costa is especially well known for his studies on Brazilian positivism.