Enlightenment in Portugal: the philosophical approach of the indian in O Uraguay by Basilio da Gama
Enlightenment; Ethic; Political Philosophy; Indigenism; Basilio da Gama; Pombal.
The poem O Uraguay, published in Lisbon in 1769, is contextualized in the Portuguese and European Enlightenment, to which it offers an original contribution. The Enlightenment in Portugal had its peak in the reign of D. José I and was characterized by royal absolutism, manifested in the form of enlightened despotism, carried out, in practice, by the Marquis of Pombal. The period was marked by the persecution of the Jesuits and by the reforms of the system and teaching methods in Portugal, in the effort to modernize the country. In this context, the theme of indigenism, under the philosophical bias, which was then debated in other European countries, had no repercussion among Portuguese thinkers. The poet José Basílio da Gama, committed to the propaganda and defense of Pombaline politics, uses his poem for this purpose, but offers a parallel argument, which approaches the pro-indigenist debate, to which he also offers an original contribution. The Brazilian Indian presented in O Uraguay is neither superior nor inferior to civilized man, as European philosophers questioned, he is equal in courage and rational capacity. In O Uraguay, the Indian argues with natural reason against the King's representative, who uses reason of state to justify his colonialist action. In this way, by valuing the figure of the Brazilian Indian and his native culture, placed in confrontation with the European invader, the poet inserted Portugal in the philosophical debate of pro-indigenism, offered an original contribution to this debate, and valued the figure of the Indian as a Brazilian man, endowed with a sense of belonging to the land and a legitimate defender of his ancestral culture.