For a radical democratization of philosophy

Abstract

This essay seeks to show the complexity of the current situation of academic philosophy in Brazil by speculating on the reasons for the structural exclusion of women, blacks and indigenous people. The exclusion highlights what we perceive as our difficulty in daring to philosophize. The explanation for the visible and quantifiable fact of the dropout of female philosophy students is not obvious, but the reaction to it is visible and palpable in the insurgency of the feminist movement of Brazilian philosophers. The problematic point, however, is that structural change presupposes a process of radical democratization of academic philosophy, which will not only occur through the force of social mobilization and attempts to sensitize our peers, but above all through affirmative action policies, changes in criteria for postgraduate and professor selection and structural transformations in the philosophy training environment through a broader and more inclusive curriculum reform and a daily fight against the racist and sexist attitudes of its members in order to make it less aggressive, competitive and oppressive.