History

A Brief History of the Program

"More or less 20 years ago, the former Department of Scientific >> and Philosophical Foundations of Education (DFCFE) had little room for philosophy - all but limited to appearing in its name. Few philosophers were members of the Department. It occurred to me in the mid 80s to set up a forum for philosophical debate with the collaboration of the group of psychologists - one of the strongest sectors of our Department. As this group was characterized by a "behaviorist" research style, I decided to start a seminar devoted to the discussion of the philosophical foundations of psychology, especially behaviorism. The seminar began by promoting the systematic discussion of The Concept of Mind - a book by Gilbert Ryle, one of the most renowned English analytic philosophers.

The seminar achieved greatest success; it created the horizon needed for a rich debate and several interdisciplinary research programs, with philosophy as its background and its goal. When the division of the DFCFE into smaller departments was proposed, the seminar group - joined by colleagues mainly from the social sciences (but also concerned with fundamental questions of epistemology) – called for the creation of a Department and Philosophy and Methodology Sciences. In mid-1988, soon after its inauguration, the Department created the Graduate Program in Philosophy; it soon came deserve a very positive evaluation by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). In recent years, the hiring of several young philosophers has resulted in a marked increase in the quantity and quality of theoretical output – the publication of books and articles in journals, both in Brazil and abroad, especially on "subjectivity and language." Completing the process of the foundation of the Department, the Administration of the Federal University of São Carlos approved this year (2006) the creation of graduate course in Philosophy, which will begin next year." (Bento Prado Jr.)