Olavo de Carvalho
Encyclopedia
Olavo Luiz Pimentel de Carvalho (Campinas
, April 29, 1947) is a Brazil
ian journalist
, and essay
ist on several issues like the history of astrology
and mysticism
; the history of revolutionary mentality
; and Philosophical Anthropology
. Known for his conservative
political stances, and for being a vehement critic of leftist and antiamerican opinions, he is considered by many an influent and erudite thinker.
Now living in the United States in the state of Virginia
, he is an international correspondent and writes a weekly column for the Brazilian newspaper Diário do Comércio. He also teaches philosophy to over 1000 students online. Carvalho has previously written for several other magazines and newspapers, such as Bravo!, Primeira Leitura, O Globo
, Época
and Zero Hora
, and taught philosophy to a smaller circle of students, while still living in Brazil. He also translated to Portuguese works of important philosophers of the 20th century, such as the Romanian Constantin Noica
, the Spanish Xavier Zubiri
, the French René Guénon
, the German-American Eric Voegelin
and Leo Strauss
. He has commented and developed researches and theories on the works of Aristotle. He has also being delivering lectures on his own work and on the work of several of those philosophers mentioned above.
In 2009 Carvalho was the founding President of the Inter American Institute for Philosophy, Government, and Social Thought.
He is the host of the popular weekly show "True Outspeak" on blogtalkradio
.
, Paulo Francis
and Bruno Tolentino
.
He sees a characteristic of the revolutionary mind in the inversion of the perception of time. He says normal individuals, based on common sense
, view the past as something immutable and the future as something that can be changed (it is contingent, as de Carvalho puts it). Not so the leftist revolutionary, who sees the utopian future as a goal that eventually will be reached no matter what and the past as something that can be changed, through reinterpretation, to accommodate it.
De Carvalho also points out that because the revolutionary believes implicitly in a future utopia
where there will be no evil
, this same leftist revolutionary believes that no holds should be barred in achieving that utopia. Thus, his own criminal activities in achieving that goal are above reproach.
However Carvalho believes that by the definition of revolution
the American revolution
is not a revolution at all because for him the Founding Fathers were men who held themselves (not just others) to high moral standards, and in no way tried to usher in a novel experimental utopian system by centralization of power, basing their actions and policies on older English traditions and common law
, and modeling the new Republic
on these tried and true common sense precepts.
De Carvalho collaborates with Ted Baehr
, Paul Edward Gottfried, Judith Reisman, Alejandro Pena Esclusa
and Donald Hank through the Inter-American Institute.He's also a friend of american political analyst Alan Keys.
According to Carvalho, Karl Popper's open society defines itself as “not recognizing any transcendent values and by leaving everything at the mercy of economic conveniences – conveniences that are something alleged even to justify the very demolition of the free market and its replacement by the welfare state
, based upon taxation and debt
.”Carvalho believes that the free market doesn’t make men good by itself,as it does not train them to be moral.Alone, it does not bother to defend itself against socialism
.So according to Carvalho the Christian values
protect the free market system,not the other way around.
Collaborations
Others
Campinas
Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....
, April 29, 1947) is a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist on several issues like the history of astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
and mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
; the history of revolutionary mentality
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
; and Philosophical Anthropology
Philosophical anthropology
Philosophical anthropology is a discipline dealing with questions of metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person, and interpersonal relationships. It is the attempt to unify disparate ways of understanding behaviour of humans as both creatures of their social environments and creators of...
. Known for his conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
political stances, and for being a vehement critic of leftist and antiamerican opinions, he is considered by many an influent and erudite thinker.
Now living in the United States in the state of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, he is an international correspondent and writes a weekly column for the Brazilian newspaper Diário do Comércio. He also teaches philosophy to over 1000 students online. Carvalho has previously written for several other magazines and newspapers, such as Bravo!, Primeira Leitura, O Globo
O Globo
O Globo is a Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. O Globo is the most prominent print publication in the Marinho family's Brazilian media conglomerate....
, Época
Época
Época is a Brazilian weekly news and analysis magazine. Since its inception in 1998, it has become one of the country's most widely read magazines...
and Zero Hora
Zero Hora
Zero Hora is a Brazilian newspaper based in the city of Porto Alegre, the seventh biggest of the country. It is edited by Grupo RBS.- Inquiry on Grupo RBS oligopoly / monopoly practicing:...
, and taught philosophy to a smaller circle of students, while still living in Brazil. He also translated to Portuguese works of important philosophers of the 20th century, such as the Romanian Constantin Noica
Constantin Noica
Constantin Noica was a Romanian philosopher, essayist and poet. His preoccupations were throughout all philosophy, from epistemology, philosophy of culture, axiology and philosophic anthropology to ontology and logics, from the history of philosophy to systematic philosophy, from ancient to...
, the Spanish Xavier Zubiri
Xavier Zubiri
Xavier Zubiri was a Spanish philosopher noted for his intellectual rigor. A major accomplishment of Zubiri's philosophy is its systematic development of a new conception of reality such that within it man, as a "sentient intelligence," appears in a different light...
, the French René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
, the German-American Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
and Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
. He has commented and developed researches and theories on the works of Aristotle. He has also being delivering lectures on his own work and on the work of several of those philosophers mentioned above.
In 2009 Carvalho was the founding President of the Inter American Institute for Philosophy, Government, and Social Thought.
He is the host of the popular weekly show "True Outspeak" on blogtalkradio
Blogtalkradio
BlogTalkRadio is a web-based platform that allows callers to host a live call-in Internet broadcast using a computer and a phone.BlogTalkRadio is entirely web-based and requires no client download.-Service:...
.
Opinions
Carvalho's study of the revolutionary mind has been well regarded in Brazil by people such as Roberto de Oliveira CamposRoberto de Oliveira Campos
Roberto de Oliveira Campos was a Brazilian economist, writer, diplomat, right-wing politician and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters...
, Paulo Francis
Paulo Francis
Paulo Francis , was a Brazilian journalist, political pundit, novelist and critic....
and Bruno Tolentino
Bruno Tolentino
Bruno Lúcio de Carvalho Tolentino was a Brazilian poet and intellectual, known for his militant opposition towards Brazilian modernism, his advocacy of traditional forms and subjects in poetry, his loathing of popular culture and concrete poetry, his self-parading as a "member of the Brazilian...
.
He sees a characteristic of the revolutionary mind in the inversion of the perception of time. He says normal individuals, based on common sense
Common sense
Common sense is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Thus, "common sense" equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have...
, view the past as something immutable and the future as something that can be changed (it is contingent, as de Carvalho puts it). Not so the leftist revolutionary, who sees the utopian future as a goal that eventually will be reached no matter what and the past as something that can be changed, through reinterpretation, to accommodate it.
De Carvalho also points out that because the revolutionary believes implicitly in a future utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
where there will be no evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, this same leftist revolutionary believes that no holds should be barred in achieving that utopia. Thus, his own criminal activities in achieving that goal are above reproach.
However Carvalho believes that by the definition of revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
the American revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
is not a revolution at all because for him the Founding Fathers were men who held themselves (not just others) to high moral standards, and in no way tried to usher in a novel experimental utopian system by centralization of power, basing their actions and policies on older English traditions and common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, and modeling the new Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
on these tried and true common sense precepts.
De Carvalho collaborates with Ted Baehr
Ted Baehr
M. Robert E. Theodore Baehr is an American media critic and Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a division of Good News Communications, Inc...
, Paul Edward Gottfried, Judith Reisman, Alejandro Pena Esclusa
Alejandro Peña Esclusa
Alejandro Peña Esclusa is a Venezuelan politician, leader of the Venezuelan NGO Fuerza Solidaria and president of the pan-Latin-American NGO UnoAmérica...
and Donald Hank through the Inter-American Institute.He's also a friend of american political analyst Alan Keys.
According to Carvalho, Karl Popper's open society defines itself as “not recognizing any transcendent values and by leaving everything at the mercy of economic conveniences – conveniences that are something alleged even to justify the very demolition of the free market and its replacement by the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, based upon taxation and debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
.”Carvalho believes that the free market doesn’t make men good by itself,as it does not train them to be moral.Alone, it does not bother to defend itself against socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.So according to Carvalho the Christian values
Christian values
The term Christian values historically refers to the values found in the teachings of Jesus.The biblical teachings of Jesus include:* love of God: "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" ,...
protect the free market system,not the other way around.
Works (in Portuguese)
- A imagem do homem na astrologia. São Paulo: Jvpiter. 1980.
- O crime da Madre Agnes ou A confusão entre espiritualidade e psiquismo. São Paulo: Speculum. 1983.
- Questões de simbolismo astrológico. São Paulo: Speculum. 1983
- Universalidade e abstração e outros estudos. São Paulo: Speculum. 1983.
- Astros e símbolos. São Paulo: Nova Stella. 1985.
- Astrologia e religião. São Paulo: Nova Stella. 1986.
- Fronteiras da tradição. São Paulo: Nova Stella. 1986.
- Símbolos e mitos no filme "O silêncio dos inocentes". Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Artes Liberais. 1992.
- Os gêneros literários: seus fundamentos metafísicos. 1993.
- O caráter como forma pura da personalidade. 1993.
- A nova era e a revolução cultural: Fritjof Capra & Antonio Gramsci. Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro : Instituto de Artes Liberais & Stella Caymmi. 1994, available online: http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/livros/neindex.htm
- Uma filosofia aristotélica da cultura. Rio de janeiro: Instituto de Artes Liberais. 1994.
- O jardim das aflições: de Epicuro à ressurreição de César - Ensaio sobre o materialismo e a religião civil. Rio de Janeiro: Diadorim. 1995.
- Aristóteles em nova perspectiva: Introdução à teoria dos quatro discursos. Rio de janeiro: Topbooks. 1996.
- O imbecil coletivo: atualidades inculturais brasileiras. Rio de Janeiro: Faculdade da Cidade. 1996.
- O futuro do pensamento brasileiro. Estudos sobre o nosso lugar no mundo. 1998.
- O imbecil coletivo II: A longa marcha da vaca para o brejo e, logo atrás dela, os filhos da PUC, as quais obras juntas formam, para ensinança dos pequenos e escarmento dos grandes. Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks. 1998.
- Coleção história essencial da filosofia. São Paulo: É Realizações. 2002-2006.
- A Dialética Simbólica - Ensaios Reunidos São Paulo: É Realizações. 2006.
- Maquiavel ou A Confusão Demoníaca. São Paulo: Vide Editorial. 2011.
Collaborations
- Arthur SchopenhauerArthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
- Como vencer um debate sem precisar ter razão: em 38 estratagemas (dialética erística). Introduction, notes and comments by Olavo de Carvalho. Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 1997. - Otto Maria CarpeauxOtto Maria CarpeauxOtto Maria Carpeaux , born Otto Karpfen, was a Brazilian literary critic born in Austria and multilingual scholar.Carpeaux was born in 1900 in Vienna, Austria, to a Jewish family, and lived there until 1939...
- Ensaios reunidos, 1942-1978. Edition, introduction and comments by Olavo de Carvalho. Rio de Janeiro: UniverCidade & Topbooks. 1999. - Émile BoutrouxEmile BoutrouxÉtienne Émile Marie Boutroux was an eminent 19th century French philosopher of science and religion, and an historian of philosophy. He was a firm opponent of materialism in science. He was a spiritual philosopher who defended the idea that religion and science are compatible at a time when the...
- Aristóteles. Introduction and notes by Olavo de Carvalho. Rio de Janeiro: Record. 1999.
External links
Online books- "A Nova Era e a Revolução Cultural: Fritjof Capra e Antonio Gramsci" (complete text)
- "Aristóteles em Nova Perspectiva" (excerpt)
- "O Jardim das Aflições" (Cap. VI, § 16-17, Epicuro e Marx)
Others
- Olavo de Carvalho - Official website
- Mídia Sem Máscara - Electronic newspaper with political analysis, edited by Olavo de Carvalho and other collaborators
- True Outspeak - Radio program (streaming)
- Seminário de Filosofia - Website with transcripts, audios and videos of Olavo de Carvalho's courses
- The Philosophy Seminar - English
- The Inter American Institute: For Philosophy, Government, and Social Tought - English