Information about Olavo de Carvalho - 3

The Opinion of the Critics
about Olavo de Carvalho

“With renowned competence in the philosophy field, he has reached great success both in his research and in his dealing with his pupils.”
(Jorge Amado)

“He has already given definite proof of the seriousness of his objectives and of his vast philosophical culture. Any effort that comes from him is worthy of support and can only add prestige to whoever gives it.”
(Romano Galeffi, Aesthetic lecturer, Federal University of Bahia)

“Indifferent to the academic elites and to the world of cultural show business, Olavo de Carvalho chose a completely intellectual life as his ambition and daily life.”
(José Enrique Barreiro, Educativa TV, Salvador, Bahia)

“An independent intellectual, not affiliated to any political or philosophical group; owner of vast culture, supported by his knowledge of philosophy.”
(Carlos Cordeiro, Diário de Pernambuco, Recife, August 26th, 1989)

“He has the brightness and the courage of the Inconfidents.”¹
(Aristóteles Drummond)

“I admire Olavo de Carvalho not only for the high value of his intellectual works, which include important books about Aristotelic philosophy, about the relationship between Epicure and Marx and about the ‘cultural revolution’ caused by Gramsci, but also for the polemic energy with which he is facing what he classifies as ‘incultural facts in Brazil’.”
(J.O. de Meira Penna, Jornal da Tarde, São Paulo, October 10th, 1996)

“A philosopher of great erudition”
(Roberto Campos, Folha de São Paulo, September 22nd, 1996)

“A philosopher, not simply a philosophy lecturer.”
(Nelson Saldanha’s message and salutation to Olavo de Carvalho in the Institute of Tropicology of the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation, Recife, Pernambuco, May 13th, 1997)

“Amazing. His work has the breath of an epopee of the word, a word fearlessly lucid and generously insurgent, rebellious and just, brave and precise.”
(Herberto Sales, Brazilian Academy)

“The most brilliant and controversial Brazilian philosopher.”
(Monica Grigorescu, Rompress – Romanian National News Agency, July 3rd, 1997)
 

About New Age and Cultural Revolution

“I praise the courage and lucidity of his ideas and the admirable way with which they are exposed.”
(Herberto Sales, Brazilian Academy)

“The essay not only is excelent, but it comes at the right time.”
(Josué Montello, Brazilian Academy)

“A living being. Magnificent. Enlightening. It has the vibration of ethical courage. Certainly one of the most important documents ever made in Brazil.”
(Jacob Klintowitz, art critic)
 

About Symbols and Myths in the Movie: “Silence of the Lambs”

“Fascinating analysis and – I dare say – definitive.”
(José Carlos Monteiro, Cinema College of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
 

About Aristotle in New Perspective

“Olavo de Carvalho goes to the philosophers who made the Western tradition of thought, giving the young reader the opportunity of going through these classics.”
(Paulo Francis, O Globo)

“In his works like in the courses he lectures, balance and coherence predominate.”
(Luis Carlos Lisboa, Jornal da Tarde, São Paulo, January 7th, 1995)
 

About The Garden of Afflictions

“Few books have I read with the same interest and benefit as The Garden of Afflictions”
(Josué Montello, Brazilian Academy)

“Inexhaustable erudition and unbeatable intellectual honesty... the dawn of a postponed and feared resurrection of the nation’s critical and philosophical independence.”
(Bruno Tolentino, preface to The Garden of Afflictions)

“A wonderful book, a lightening flash in the darkness.”
(Leopoldo Serran, Jornal do Brasil, September 6th, 1996)

“If the work of Olavo de Carvalho is distinguished from the showy and empty prose of the philosophes on duty, it is due to his living and good humoured text, to his generous erudition and to the permanent search for clarity and intellectual honesty.”
(Antônio Fernando Borges, Jornal do Brasil, January 6th, 1996)

“Olavo de Carvalho is even an iconoclast, of an iconaclasty that was made necessary... He goes in the front line of courage, having large and deep erudition, as can be proved by his philosophical texts of a widely Hellenic basis, Literary Genres, An Aristotelic Philosophy of Culture, brief, concise, conceptually rigorous, with refined logical methodology backing the polemical heat which, in this way, does not harm him.”
(Vamireh Chacon, Jornal de Brasília, January 22nd, 1996)
 

About The Collective Imbecile: Incultural Facts in Brazil

“A can’t-miss-it book. Demand it from the bookstores.”
(Paulo Francis, O Globo and O Estado de São Paulo, July 28th, 1996)

“Lucid and eloquent as Irving Kristol.”
(Alan Neil Ditchfied)

“Like Jackson de Figueiredo, like Gustavo Corção, Olavo de Carvalho sees imbecility as a moral mistake. He has a philosophical and universal vision of this problem.”
(José Arthur Rios)

“An intelligence like few among us.”
(Paulo Bentacur, Jornal do Comércio (Porto Alegre), November 22nd ,1996)

“Fearsome intelligence and unbeatable philosophical skill”
(Angelo Monteiro, Diário de Pernambuco, November 23rd, 1996)

“Olavo de Carvalho re-establishes a tradition that was in a scary decline: the tradition of severe and bold criticism, which demythizes false values, hygienizing intellectual life.”
(Edson Nery da Fonseca, Diário de Pernambuco, May 17th, 1997)
 

About the Conference “Les Plus Exclus des Exclus”²
(UNESCO, PARIS, June 29th, 1997)

“Fascinating.”
(Amy Colin, Pittsburg University)
 

NOTES:

1. The Inconfidents of Minas Gerais were a group in later 18th century Brazil who, inspired by the American Revolution, dreamed about making Brazil a Republic independent from Portugal. Betrayed by an insider who denounced them to the Portuguese authorities, their most famous member was Tiradentes, a dentist who was eventually hanged and has become a national hero. Brazil would reach its Independence only in 1822, at the hands of Dom Pedro I, crown prince of Portugal, and the scheming of the Brazilian aristocracy and Freemasonry, turning Brazil into an independent constitutional monarchy. Some years later Dom Pedro I abandoned Brazil and become Pedro IV, king of Portugal. Only in 1889 did Brazil become a Republic as desired by the Inconfidents. – Translator and Editor's note. Back
2. “The Most Excluded of the Excluded” available in French and Portuguese. Back

Translation: Fábio Lins - Proof Reading: Jacqueline Baca