Abstract
This article aims to analyze the presence of belief in the evolutionist ideas - at once mystical-religious and scientific - of the philosopher Pythagoras (570-490 B.C.) in the writings of the black intellectual André Rebouças (1838-1898). We intend to understand the meanings attributed by the Brazilian abolitionist to his “Pythagorean propaganda”, conceived as an ideal way to achieve societal transformations, through reformist projects that he advocated for both in Brazil and in Africa (1892-1893). In alignment with the Greek thinker, Rebouças’ militancy was guided by the belief that the world was in constant moral and material evolution, whilst its transformation was mathematically ordered by the harmony of the opposites. A society led by strict, disciplined virtues and moral behavior would thus experience less unequal social and economic development, and vice versa. Rebouças concurrently maintained that a project of moral and material intervention in society would constitute a step towards achieving a future universal brotherhood rooted in altruism. Drawing upon his newspaper articles, letters, and diaries, written between 1888 and 1893, this text demonstrates that André Rebouças found inspiration in Pythagorean conceptions of the evolution of the cosmos to propose solutions to social issues such as the abolition of slavery, poverty relief, and the democratization of access to land.
Keywords:
André Rebouças; Pythagoras; cosmos evolution