Vol. 69 (2024): A Contemporaneidade Filosófica de Fernando Pessoa

Dossier: Fernando Pessoa’s Philosophical contemporaneity.

Alain Badiou, in his Petit Manuel d’Inesthétique (2005), states that contemporary philosophy is not yet worthy of Fernando Pessoa. For Badiou, the superiority of Pessoa's poetry lies in its ability to overcome the Platonism-anti-Platonism dichotomy that continues to haunt Western philosophy. Pessoa himself attributes the possibility of transcending this – or any other – dichotomy to his approach to Hegel. Although widely disseminated, through the works of Pessoa’s main exegetes, the philosophical dimension of his poetry remains, however, puzzling. Hence Badiou's challenge: we must become contemporaries of Fernando Pessoa. How? And what does this contemporaneity really mean? Faced with the challenge, and the questions it triggers, this dossier intends to bring together texts dedicated to taking Pessoa’s philosophical considerations seriously. The articles should reflect on the various recurring philosophical themes in Pessoa's poetics: being, nothingness, boredom, anguish, existence, emptiness, paganism, pantheism, transcendentalism, mythology, death, life, alterity, nihilism, politics, forms of government, technology – are just some examples. Thus, considering the issues and themes, we invite researchers to submit texts that deal with the different philosophical facets of Pessoa’s poetry, from the perspective that, for Fernando Pessoa, philosophy and poetry are, somewhat, inseparable.

Organizers:

Maria Celeste Natário (U.PORTO, Portugal), Mário Correia (U.PORTO, Portugal),                                    Wanderley Dias da Silva (U.PORTO, Portugal)