Intellectuals, social thought and the disputes about the interpretation of Brazil

Resumen

Recent studies devoted to Brazilian social thought have mapped the existence of antagonistic arguments concerning the relation between state and society throughout the formation and modernization of the country. As a consequence, different diagnoses and prescriptions were constructed by the national intelligentzia , which was directly involved in the public debate. The present article converses with these opposing strands, identifying both proximities and distances between them.