The first philosopher tupiniquim: Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (1810-1885)

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the literary and philosophical work of Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta, the first Brazilian philosopher, who in the mid-nineteenth century, in a world where letters were mostly a privilege for white and male people, Nísia represents and marks a divisor, to the extent that by taking as substrate the European and Brazilian problems she writes about her time, and at the same time breaks with it, projecting herself into the future. For this reason, we will present and analyze three texts by the author, namely: the Opúsculo humanitário (1853), the historical poem A Lágrima de um caeté (1849), and the text published as a pamphlet Páginas de uma vida obscura (1855). Finally, we conclude that in this land named Brazil, we have, in the middle of nineteenth-century society, a woman who is thinking the world beyond modernity, who does not limit herself to European egoity, but thinks a new world.