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As it happens with other early-Modern corpora, the descriptive texts from 16th-century encounters of the Portuguese colonizers in Brazil are well-known for their strangeness. In them we find references to entities like monsters and demons, bizarre descriptions, and odd classification systems of plants and animals. For the most part, these elements are dismissed as mere eccentricities by modern scholars studying these texts. Instead, this book takes these elements seriously. They are focused on and tackled with a theoretical tool_styles of thinking_not yet used in Luso-Brazilian studies, and coming from another field of inquiry: philosophy and history of science. By doing so the book aims to unveil epistemological and ontological issues in which colonial and post-colonial studies are entangled, and which have a relevance that goes beyond debates concerning, for instance, the formation of Brazil's cultural identity. This book contributes to Luso-Brazilian studies, science studies, and the history of the early-modern period. The notion of 'styles of thinking' as presented and used in it benefitted from the many discussions about philosophy and history of science that emerged since the 1980s, with authors such as Ian Hacking, Lorraine Daston, and Peter Galison, who have already done much reassessing critically what is best in the work of previous authors such as Paul Feyerabend, Thomas Kuhn, and Michel Foucault. This book considers that the well-known puzzling passages of the corpus of the Portuguese have a fictional and figurative character that acquires full intelligibility in view of literary and mystical traditions typical of the late Renaissance, and influential over the Portuguese. Nature is understood as emerging from an excessive source which permanently overflows it and which is impossible to refer and depict literally. The book points to the fact that such an idea would connect the Portuguese with other peculiar pre-Modern and post-Modern authors with similar ontological insights: from the neo-Platonists to Boccaccio, Nietzsche, and more recently, Derrida.

The significance of negativity as a way for conceptual determination in Hegelian dialectics is well-known. Authors such as Gilles Deleuze have underlined, on the other hand, how this notion of (dialectical) negativity is incompatible with a Nietzschean perspective of interplay of forces and affirmation of difference. There is here a real distension (rather than a distinction) — a fissure enabling one to think what connects and inevitably dissociates rationalistic and deconstructive philosophical perspectives on language. In this fissure it is constituted, for instance, the space of dispersion of the so-called Foucaultian statements (énoncés), the focus of his archeology. This essay addresses the context in which the Foucaultian notion of énoncé emerges. It does so by criticizing first the dialectical notion of negativity. It then considers some semiological notions used by post-structuralist authors, such as plethora of signs and floating signifier. In a third moment, examples are taken from a literary work, Vitor Ramil’s Pequod, in order to illustrate more concretely our discussion.

The significance of negativity as a way for conceptual determination in Hegelian dialectics is well-known. Authors such as Gilles Deleuze have underlined, on the other hand, how this notion of (dialectical) negativity is incompatible with a Nietzschean perspective of interplay of forces and affirmation of difference. There is here a real distension (rather than a distinction) a fissure enabling one to think what connects and inevitably dissociates rationalistic and deconstructive philosophical perspectives on language. In this fissure it is constituted, for instance, the space of dispersion of the so-called Foucaultian statements (noncs), the focus of his archeology. This essay addresses the context in which the Foucaultian notion of nonc emerges. It does so by criticizing first the dialectical notion of negativity. It then considers some semiological notions used by post-structuralist authors, such as plethora of signs and floating signifier. In a third moment, examples are taken from a literary work, Vitor Ramils Pequod, in order to illustrate more concretely our discussion.

Este artigo defende, com base no pensamento do filósofo italiano moderno Giambattista Vico, a tese que aponta a linguagem poética e metafórica como sendo a linguagem primeira. Considerando contribuições de alguns autores atuais para o tema, se apontará igualmente para a contemporaneidade da abordagem de Vico. A noção da linguagem metafórica como linguagem primeira foi formulada por Giambattista Vico na sua obra Principii di Scienza Nuova. De acordo com ele, a linguagem de uma comunidade surge de um contacto, carregado de fantasia e imaginação, entre tudo o que está imediatamente próximo aos seres humanos concretos, como suas emoções e seus corpos, que não são derradeiramente conhecidos por ele, e as coisas de um mundo externo também desconhecido. A 'linguagem abstrata' e a distinção entre o metafórico e o literal surgem apenas mais tarde, quando esse enraizamento dos significados na eclosão imaginativa de uma cultura específica passa a ser esquecido e é tomado como pertencendo apenas às coisas nelas mesmas, objetivamente. Este artículo defiende, con base en el pensamiento del filósofo italiano moderno Giambattista Vico, la tesis que caracteriza el lenguaje poético y metafórico como siendo el lenguaje primero. Considerando contribuciones de algunos autores actuales para el tema, se apuntará igualmente para la contemporaneidad del abordaje de Vico. La noción del lenguaje metafórico como lenguaje primero fue formulada por Giambattista Vico en su obra Principii di Scienza Nuova. De acuerdo con él, el lenguaje de una comunidad surge de un contacto, cargado de fantasía e imaginación, entre todo lo que está inmediatamente próximo a los seres humanos concretos, como sus emociones y sus cuerpos, que no son verdaderamente conocidos por él, y las cosas de un mundo externo también desconocido. El 'lenguaje abstracto' y la distinción entre lo metafórico y lo literal surgen apenas más tarde, cuando esa raigambre de los significados en la eclosión imaginativa de una cultura específica pasa a ser olvidado y es tomado como perteneciendo apenas a las cosas en ellas mismas, objetivamente. Ayant comme base la pensée du philosophe italien moderne Giambattista Vico, cet article fait la défense de la thèse qui caractérise le langage poétique et métaphorique comme si c'était le premier langage. Tout en considérant des contributions pour le sujet de quelques auteurs actuels, on vise aussi la contemporanéité de Vico. La notion du langage métaphorique comme premier langage a été formulée par Giambattista Vico dans son œuvre majeure, Principii di Scienza Nuova. Selon lui, le langage d'une communauté apparaît à partir d'un contact, chargé de fantaisie et d'imagination, parmi tout ce qui est tout de suite proche aux êtres concrets, comme leurs émotions et leurs corps, qui ne sont pas à la fin connus par lui, et les choses d'un monde extérieur aussi inconnu. Le 'langage abstrait' et la distinction entre le métaphorique et le littéral surgissent seulement plus tard, quand cet enracinement des significations dans l'éclosion imaginative d'une culture spécifique est oublié et pris comme appartenant seulement aux choses dans elles- mêmes, objectivement. This paper sustains, on the basis of the work of the modern Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, a thesis which characterizes poetic and metaphorical language as our primary language. Considering the contribution of some up-to-date authors to the subject, we will also take into consideration the contemporaneity of Vico's approach. The view of metaphoric language as our primary social language was formulated by Giambattista Vico in his work Principii di Scienza Nuova. According to him, the language of a community emerges from the contact between everything that is immediately close to its concrete human beings and the things of an external world. The community does not have a conscious knowledge either of the external things or of what is closer to them, such as their own emotions and bodies. The contact between these two loci (internal and external) of things and meanings is then full of fantasy and imagination. The notion of an 'abstract language' and the distinction between what is metaphorical and what is literal arises only later, when the stabilization of meanings in the imaginative production of a specific culture comes to be forgotten and these meanings are presumed to belong to the things themselves, objectively.

This paper sustains, on the basis of the work of the modern Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, a thesis which characterizes poetic & metaphorical language as our primary language. Considering the contribution of some up-to-date authors to the subject, we will also take into consideration the contemporaneity of Vico's approach. The view of metaphoric language as our primary social language was formulated by Giambattista Vico in his 1725 work Principii di Scienza Nuova (Principles of New Science). According to him, the language of a community emerges from the contact between everything that is immediately close to its concrete human beings & the things of an external world. The community does not have a conscious knowledge either of the external things or of what is closer to them, such as their own emotions & bodies. The contact between these two loci (internal & external) of things & meanings is then full of fantasy & imagination. The notion of an 'abstract language' & the distinction between what is metaphorical & what is literal arises only later, when the stabilization of meanings in the imaginative production of a specific culture comes to be forgotten & these meanings are presumed to belong to the things themselves, objectively. Adapted from the source document

Este artigo defende, com base no pensamento do filósofo italiano moderno Giambattista Vico, a tese que aponta a linguagem poética e metafórica como sendo a linguagem primeira. Considerando contribuições de alguns autores atuais para o tema, se apontará igualmente para a contemporaneidade da abordagem de Vico. A noção da linguagem metafórica como linguagem primeira foi formulada por Giambattista Vico na sua obra Principii di Scienza Nuova. De acordo com ele, a linguagem de uma comunidade surge de um contacto, carregado de fantasia e imaginação, entre tudo o que está imediatamente próximo aos seres humanos concretos, como suas emoções e seus corpos, que não são derradeiramente conhecidos por ele, e as coisas de um mundo externo também desconhecido. A 'linguagem abstrata' e a distinção entre o metafórico e o literal surgem apenas mais tarde, quando esse enraizamento dos significados na eclosão imaginativa de uma cultura específica passa a ser esquecido e é tomado como pertencendo apenas às coisas nelas mesmas, objetivamente.

A survey of some of the most representative language philosophies in the Western tradition leads to the conclusion that the perennial issue of whether linguistic meanings are literal or metaphorical may never be decided unequivocally. Plato's, Giambattista Vico's (1725), Friedrich Nietzsche's (1873), Anthony Richard's (1936), & Jacques Derrida's (1989) views are considered, concluding that the problems of circularity, self-reference, & regression ad infinitum are formidable obstacles to resolving the question of the first, original, & fundamental, meaning of linguistic signs. 11 References. Adapted from the source document