Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados n. 10 Rio de Janeiro 1973
Abstract
This article was written with the purpose of stimulating a debate on Francisco de Olivelra's essay A Economia Brasileira: Crítica à Razão Dualista. The importance of this essay is twofold: first it reintroduces an historical perspective which is frequently overlooked in those studies of Brazilian capitalism that took the mid-fifties or even 1964 as a starting point. Second, Oliveira adopts a Marxist approach rejecting the conventional character of these analyses. The dualist interpretation is chosen as representative of the conventional schemes, and the process of capital accumulation is viewed as a process of social production which, according to Poulantzas, "means at the same time and in the same movement, the division; the exploitation and the struggle between classes". The article presents some difficulties of and some restrictions to Oliveira's interpretation. Both the structure of the essay and the diversity of the aspects examined by its author transform the evaluation of the essay as a whole into an extremely difficult endeavor. However, the main conclusion of this article may be briefly stated: it is not Oliveira's methodological position which affects negatively the essay as a whole, but rather his inability to distinguish clearly between his theoretical and his real objects. ln fact, the task of maintaining theoretical concepts as ''central axes of the investigation" in an essay whose objective is that of studying a concrete historical reality demands a much greater effort than the one presented by Oliveira. Otherwise the discourse may result in what Gerschenkron called "semantic fetichism". It is convenient to remember that even for Althusser the ultimate purpose of all theoretical discourse is the concrete knowledge of a concrete object. The difficulties of this task may well be assessed in Marx's contention that this knowledge is the result of the "synthesis of a multiplicity of determinations".
A Propósito de uma Reinterpretação do Desenvolvlmento Brasileiro desde os anos 30
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