Banca de DEFESA: ADRIANA PAULA DE SOUZA

The Decolonial Attitude and Dialectical Reason: The Struggle against Epistemicide in Brazilian Philosophy Education

Sartre; philosophy education; dialectics; decoloniality.

This study draws on Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy, according to which history is the outcome of human praxis and should be understood as a constitutive dimension of the existential project that shapes forms of action in the world. Since human actions may be either conscious or alienated, they negate, preserve, or transform the initially given existential conditions. These conditions constitute the practico-inert field, understood as the set of material and institutional structures that condition, but do not determine, human action. In light of Sartre's dialectics, articulated through the progressiveregressive method, the educational process is understood as a historical and intersubjective practice in which freedom does not oppose determination but affirms itself through it. Within the context of philosophy education, teachers' individual praxis is expressed in pedagogical decisions and forms of interaction with students, understood as choices made within a concrete historical situation marked by curricula, educational policies, and established philosophical traditions. From this perspective, the study adopts a decolonial standpoint, which implies that philosophy teaching in Brazil is shaped by the coloniality of knowledge, which hierarchizes forms of knowing and silences alternative epistemologies. Consequently, philosophy education is revealed as a political and emancipatory practice capable of generating critical transformations within existing structures and contributing to the development of historical consciousness among subjects who are aware of their situation and are able to intervene in reality through multiple experiences and epistemic traditions. Rather than serving as a teaching manual, this study develops an epistemological and ontological inquiry into educational practice as a historical process. In relation to the concepts of responsibility, situation, and praxis, philosophy teaching cannot be regarded as neutral or predetermined; instead, it is permeated by power relations grounded in dominant epistemological traditions. Accordingly, the discussion assumes a decolonial orientation, encouraging pedagogical approaches that value epistemic plurality and foster teaching practices conducive to intellectual and social emancipation. In addition to Sartre's work, the research engages with decolonial thinkers such as Luiz Rufino, Thiago Dantas, Renato Nogueira, and Frantz Fanon.