Eduardo Arantes
Translated by
Marco Alexandre de Oliveira and Rodrigo Nunes
polity
Copyright Page
Originally published in Portuguese as Erro, ilusão, loucura. Copyright © Editora 34 Ltda./Heirs of Bento Prado Jr., 2018. Copyright © Arley Ramos Moreno, Sérgio Cardoso, and Paulo Eduardo Arantes, for their texts, 2018. Published by arrangement with Editora 34 Ltda. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This English edition © 2021 by Polity Press
Chapter 4, ‘The Plane of Immanence and Life’ by Bento Prado Júnior and translated by Michael B. Wrigley, was originally published in Introduction to the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, edited by Jean Khalfa. English translation copyright © 2003 Continuum Publishing. Reprinted with permission of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3704-4 hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3705-1 paperback
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Prado Júnior, Bento., author. | Oliveira, Marco Alexandre de, translator. | Nunes, Rodrigo, translator. | Moreno, Arley Ramos, other.
Title: Error, illusion, madness / Bento Prado Jr. ; commentaries by Arley Ramos Moreno, Sérgio Cardoso and Paulo Eduardo Arante ; translated by Marco Alexandre de Oliveira and Rodrigo Nunes.
Description: English edition. | Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA, USA : Polity Press, [2021] | Series: Critical south | “Originally published in Portuguese as Erro, ilusão, loucura. Editora 34 Ltda./Heirs of Bento Prado Jr., 2018.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A key work on the nature and role of the subject by one of Brazil’s most important philosophers”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020038421 (print) | LCCN 2020038422 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509537044 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509537051 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509537068 (epub) | ISBN 9781509543571 (adobe pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy, Brazilian--20th century. | Prado Júnior, Bento. | Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951.
Classification: LCC B1042 .P7313 2021 (print) | LCC B1042 (ebook) | DDC 199/.81--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038421
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038422
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Dedication
For my grandchildren, Sofia and Bentinho
Publisher’s Note
Chapter 4 was translated by Michael B. Wrigley. It is reproduced here by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing. The Foreword was translated by Rodrigo Nunes. The remainder of the text was co-translated by Marco Alexandre de Oliveira and Rodrigo Nunes.
Quote
I got lost inside myself
Because I was a maze
And to feel myself these days
Is to find I miss myself.
I am neither myself nor another,
I am something of a medium:
A pillar on the bridge of tedium
That goes from me to the Other.
Mário de Sá-Carneiro, ‘Dispersão’ and ‘7’, excerpts
Foreword No Proper Place of Its Own Vladimir Safatle
A single lexicon is not enough.
João Guimarães Rosa
Is there such a thing as a point of view of the periphery?
Understanding the dynamics proper to traditions of critical thought that have grown on the periphery of core capitalist countries demands a double decolonial twist. For this is not simply a matter of searching there for the themes and questions perceived in European and North American universities as pertaining to the experience of overcoming colonial oppression. It is equally a matter of being attentive to the singular manner in which peripheral countries form traditions of critical thought according to their own demands and through the internalization of programs and problems. One of the most astute ways of perpetuating a certain colonial logic is by believing that some questions are out of bounds for the thought that develops in peripheral countries and belong exclusively to the core. One of the most important tasks for the decolonization of thought is to suspend that interdiction and to assume that anyone can think any question and no tradition is barred to us.
Maybe this is an adequate way of introducing the intellectual experience of Bento Prado Jr. Although he is widely regarded as a major name in the philosophy made in Brazil and one of the country’s foremost essayists, it is only now, ten years after his death, that he is having a book translated into English for the first time. His oeuvre consists of a handful of books that have influenced several generations of Brazilian thinkers. It begins with
