Reflections on the Vanity of Men, by Matias Aires: a pessimistic work of philosophy in Brazil?

Abstract

This article examines Matias Aires's Reflections on the Vanity of Men (1752) from a twofold perspective. First, it investigates the possibility of considering this work as an expression of Brazilian philosophy, despite its undeniable European influences. To this end, it mobilizes contributions from Cruz Costa, Alcides Bezerra, and Jacinto do Prado Coelho, who provide elements for thinking about the originality of philosophical thought produced in colonial Brazil. Second, it analyzes the argumentative structure of Aires's pessimism using Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's theory of argumentation, identifying three types of reasoning that underpin his pessimistic worldview: the argument of useless sacrifice, the argument of universal and irreversible contagion of human actions by their vices, and the argument of depreciation of the common through the coexistence between the person and their vices. It concludes that Aires's pessimism, although radical in its anthropological dimension, preserves the possibility of a redemptive providential intervention, which confirms a singularity of his metaphysical worldview.