Theo Machado Fellows, Professor in the Department and Graduate Program in Philosophy, Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, AM, Brazil.
The article On the possibility of an Amazonian philosophy published in the journal Trans/Form/Ação (vol. 48, No. 6, 2025), arises from the need to discuss the inclusion of non-Western forms of thought, in this case, traditional Amazonian wisdom, in Brazilian philosophical research. Given the scarcity of discussions on indigenous thought in our philosophical universe, we seek to evaluate possible approaches for a dialogue with these forms of wisdom, whose systematisation has increasingly been undertaken by indigenous researchers, especially in northern Brazil.
To this end, we propose a reflection on the ethnophilosophical model, the subject of intense debate in African philosophy since the mid-20th century and present, albeit in a veiled form, in some Brazilian approaches to non-Western thought. We point out the problems with this approach, which, in defending a valorisation of Non-Western forms of thought, ends up promoting, on the one hand, a vulgarisation of the word ‘philosophy’, as Paulin Hountondji suggests, and, on the other, the forced subsumption of singular forms of thought in Western categories, as Bruno Latour shows us.
As an alternative to the ethnophilosophical model, we draw on the Amerindian perspectivism of Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. This model for understanding the ways of thinking of Brazil’s indigenous peoples identifies a multinaturalist ontology that recognises the subjectivity of non-human entities: animals, humans and spirits are seen as individuals endowed with a common epistemology, which nevertheless produces variable ontologies.
We understand that the perspectivism identified by Viveiros de Castro differs from the ethnophilosophical approaches observed in authors such as Placide Tempels due to the Brazilian anthropologist’s intense work of observation and listening to ancestral knowledge. However, the application of Amerindian perspectivism to the formulation of an Amazonian philosophy can only be justified through readings and reflections based on indigenous authors.
The last part of the article therefore proposes a philosophical approach to the work of two indigenous anthropologists and their expositions of the thinking of the Yepamahsã people, also known as Tukano, from the Amazonian region of the Upper Rio Negro. In the works of João Paulo Barreto and Gabriel Maia, we find the systematisation of Yepamahsã wisdom around the conceptual tripod formed by the kihti ukuse, the bahsese and the bahsamori.
Our aim is to show how these concepts and practices of Yepamahsã thought offer new tools for philosophical research, excluding the need to associate them with the consolidated sub-areas of Western philosophy. In indigenous thought, we find new cartographies of knowledge that can aid in the task of decolonising Amazonian and Brazilian philosophy.
He has a doctorate in philosophy from the Technische Universität Berlin, in Germany, and is an associate professor at the department and Postgraduate Program in Philosophy at the Federal University of Amazonas
FELLOWS, T.M. An invitation to the debate on the amazonian philosophy [online]. SciELO in Perspective: Humanities, 2025 [viewed ]. Available from: https://humanas.blog.scielo.org/en/2025/12/03/an-invitation-to-the-debate-on-the-amazonian-philosophy/
The article On the possibility of an Amazonian philosophy published in the journal Trans/Form/Ação (vol. 48, No. 6, 2025), arises from the need to discuss the inclusion of non-Western forms of thought, in this case, traditional Amazonian wisdom, in Brazilian philosophical research. Given the scarcity of discussions on indigenous thought in our philosophical universe, we seek to evaluate possible approaches for a dialogue with these forms of wisdom, whose systematisation has increasingly been undertaken by indigenous researchers, especially in northern Brazil.
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