Between an “objectified thought” and a “subjectless rationality”: spirit and nature in Lévi-Straussian structuralism

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Rafael Henrique Teixeira
José Francisco Miguel Henriques Bairrão

Abstract

This article examines the structural analysis of myths as undertaken by Claude Lévi-Strauss, its relevance to the formulation of his notion of spirit, and how the anthropologist ventured some conceptual generalizations regarding nature. Such aims entail considering Lévi-Straussian structuralism—according to the justification provided by its own creator—from a perspective that subsumes, without denying it, the empirical vocation of anthropology under epistemological speculations. These speculations are discernible in his reflections on the relations between nature and spirit, as well as on the status of the subject in the consolidation of the structuralist project of comparative analysis of Amerindian mythology.

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Author Biographies

Rafael Henrique Teixeira, Universidade de São Paulo (USP)

Possui graduação em Ciências Sociais pela USP, mestrado em Antropologia Social pela USP (CNPq), doutorado em Filosofia pela UFSCAR (FAPESP), com estágio de pesquisa na Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès (BEPE-FAPESP), e doutorado em Psicologia pela USP. Realizou pesquisa de pós-doutorado junto ao Departamento de Filosofia da UNICAMP (FAPESP), ocasião na qual desenvolveu estágio de pesquisa na Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (BEPE-FAPESP).

José Francisco Miguel Henriques Bairrão, Universidade de São Paulo (USP)

José Francisco Miguel Henriques Bairrão earned bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of São Paulo (FFLCH and IP). He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of Campinas (IFCH) and holds the title of Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo (FFCLRP). He is currently a researcher and professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters of the University of São Paulo. He coordinates the Ethnopsychology Laboratory at this institution, where he supervises and conducts research guided by an interest in maintaining the connection between epistemological reflection (Epistemology of Psychology, Philosophy of Psychoanalysis) and empirical research (Psychology of Culture, Psychology of Religion), as well as being open to interdisciplinary arguments and contributions.

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