George Agostinho Baptista da Silva (Porto, February 13, 1906 - Lisbon, April 3, 1994), was a Portuguese Philosopher, essayist and Writer. His thought combines elements of pantheism and millenarism, an ethic of renounciation (like in buddhism or franciscanism), and a belief in freedom as the most important feature of man. Anti-dogmatic, he asserts that truth is only found in the sum of all conflicting hypothesis (in paradox). He may be considered a practical philosopher, living and working for a change in society, according to his beliefs. A modern view of the ancient city of Porto, the city that gave the name to the country. ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Lisbon (in Portuguese, Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. ... April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... An essay is a short work that treats a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Pantheism (Greek: pan = all and Theos = God) literally means God is All and All is God. It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. ... Millenarianism or millenarism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society after which all things will be changed in a positive (or sometimes negative or ambiguous) direction. ... A replica of an ancient statue of Gautama Buddha, found from Sarnath, near Varanasi. ... The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ... Freedom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Robert Boyles self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist. ...

Biography

(translated and adapted from: Valente, Romana Brázio, "Agostinho da Silva: Síntese Biográfica")

George Agostinho Baptista da Silva was born in Oporto on 1906, and later in the same year moved to Barca D’Alva (Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo), where he lived until about 6 years old. From 1924 to 1928 he takes Classical Philology at the Faculdade de Letras of Universidade do Porto. After graduation he starts writing in the Seara Nova magazine (a collaboration that will continue until 1938). A modern view of the ancient city of Porto, the city that gave the name to the country. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Classical scholarship, also known as classical philology or classics, is the study of ancient Greece and Rome. ... The University of Porto (Universidade do Porto) is a Portuguese university located in Porto. ...

By 1931, as a scholarship student, he attends Sorbonne and Collége de France (Paris). Since 1933 he works as a teacher in the Aveiro highschool but in 1935 is discharched for refusing to sign a statement (then mandatory to all civil servants) declaring no participation in secret (thus subversive...) organizations. 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The Sorbonne today, from the same point of view The Sorbonne is frequently used in ordinary parlance as synonymous with the faculty of theology of Paris or the University of Paris in its entirety. ... Courtyard of the Collège de France. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Coat of Arms Aveiro streets by night Sé Catedral de Aveiro Aveiro and one of its canals. ...

He creates the Núcleo Pedagógico Antero de Quental in 1939 and in 1940 starts publishing Iniciação: cadernos de informação cultural. Arrested by the secret police in 1943, leaves the country the following year. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) is a common year starting on Friday. ...

He lived in Brazil, from 1947 to 1969, due to his opposition to the fascist regime of the Estado Novo (New State) led by Salazar. In 1948 he starts working at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Rio de Janeiro studying entomology, teaches at Faculdade Fluminense de Filosofia and collaborates with Jaime Cortesão in a research about Alexandre de Gusmão (18th century brazilian diplomat). From 1952 to 1954, he teaches at Universidade de Paraíba (João Pessoa) and also in Pernambuco. 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... History of Portugal series Prehistoric Portugal Pre-Roman Portugal Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia Visigoths and Suevi Moorish rule and Reconquista First County of Portugal Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal Second County of Portugal Establishment of the Monarchy Consolidation of the Monarchy 1383–1385 Crisis Discoveries Portuguese Empire 1580 Crisis Iberian... Professor António de Oliveira Salazar (pron. ... Instituto Oswaldo Cruz is a scientific institution for research and development in biomedical sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ... Ipanema beach, in the South Zone, immortalised by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Morais song The Girl from Ipanema Cristo Redentor, the famous Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of the Corcovado mountain A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in... Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Brazilian Northeast. ...

In 1954, again with Jaime Cortesão, he helps organize the 4th Centennial Exhibition of São Paulo. He was one of the founders of Universidade de Santa Catarina, created the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais (Afro-Oriental Studies Center), teached Theater Philosophy at Universidade da Bahia, and, in 1961, became an external policy adviser to the brazilian president Jânio Quadros. He helped to create the Universidade de Brasília and its Centro de Estudos Portugueses (Portuguese Studies Center), in [1962]], and, two years later, he creates the Casa Paulo Dias Adorno in Cachoeira and idealizes the Museu do Atlântico Sul in Salvador. The title of this article contains the character ã. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Sao Paulo. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jânio da Silva Quadros (January 25, 1917—February 16, 1992) was a Brazilian politician who was briefly President of Brazil in 1961. ... The University of Brasília or Universidade de Brasília (UnB) is a large state university in Brasília. ... Cachoeira, an inland town of Bahia, Brazil, on the Paraguassfl river. ... Salvador and Baía de Todos os Santos from space, April 1997 Morning Street Scene, Bahia, Brazil, about 1900 Salvador (in full, São Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos, meaning Holy Savior of the Bay of All Saints) is a city on the northeast coast of Brazil...

He comes back to Portugal in 1969, after Salazar's illness and replacement by Marcello Caetano, which originated some political and cultural opening in the regime. From then on he, among many other things, continued to write, teach at portuguese universities, direct the Centro de Estudos Latino-americanos (Latin-American Studies Center) at Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, and acted as a consultant to Instituto de Cultura e Língua Portuguesa (ICALP, Portuguese Culture and Language Institute). 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... Professor António de Oliveira Salazar (pron. ... Marcelo Caetano also spelled Marcello Caetano (August 17, 1906- October 26, 1980) was a Portuguese politician. ... The Technical University of Lisbon (UTL - Universidade Técnica de Lisboa) was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of older schools, and comprises, nowadays, the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine; Agricultural Sciences; Economics and Business Administration; Engineering, Social and Political Sciences; Architecture; and Human Kinetics. ...

In 1990, the portuguese public television channel, RTP1 broadcasted a series of thirteen interviews with him, called Conversas Vadias. He died, at the São Francisco de Xavier Hospital, in Lisbon, in 1994. This article is about the year. ... District Lisbon Mayor   - Party Carmona Rodrigues PSD Area 84. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

A documentary, named Agostinho da Silva: Um Pensamento Vivo, directed by João Rodrigues Mattos, was released by Alfândega Filmes, in 2004. There is an unreleased interview, by António Escudeiro, called Agostinho por Si Próprio, in wich he talks about the worship of the Holy Spirit. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

He's revered as one of the leading Portuguese intelectual personalities of the 20th century. Among the books he wrote, there are biographies of Michaelangelo, Pasteur and St. Francis of Assisi, and his most influencial book is, probably, Sete Cartas a Um Jovem Filósofo (Seven Letters to a Young Philosopher). Michelangelo (full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564) was a Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. ... Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French microbiologist and chemist who demonstrated the germ theory of disease and developed techniques of inoculation, most notably the first vaccine against rabies. ... Francis of Assisi by El Greco Saint Francis of Assisi (1182 – 4 October 1226) founded the Franciscan Order or Friars Minor. He is the patron saint of animals, merchants, Catholic action and the environment. ...

His Own Words

(translated from: Silva, Agostinho da, Educação de Portugal. Lisboa: Ulmeiro, 1989. ISBN 972-706-213-X)

a) "... that each man is different from myself and unique in the universe; that I am not the one, consequently, that must reflect instead of him, [...] that knows what is best for him, [...] that must point his way. Towards him I have only one right: helping him to be himself; as my essential duty to myself is being who I am, as uncomfortable as that may be [...]"

b) "... loving others and wanting their good has been the reason of much oppression and much death [...]; essentially, you must not love in others anything but freedom, theirs and yours. They must, for love, cease being slaves, as must we, for love, cease being slave owners."

c) "And it is the child the one that must be considered the noble savage, spoiling her, mis-shaping her [...] the least we possibly can [...]" A noble savage is a person who belongs to an uncivilized group or tribe and is considered to be, consequently, more worthy than people who live within civilization. ...

d) "Believing, thus, that man is born good, wich means on my regard that he is born a brother to the world, not its owner and destroyer, I think that education [...] has not been much else than the system through wich this fraternity is transformed in domination."

According to Agostinho da Silva, some of the most relevant aspects that shaped the nature of the Portuguese people and influenced the culture of Portuguese-speaking nations are: its popular religiousness, with strong elements of millenarism and mysticism; a tradition of participatory democracy and autonomy based on small local communities; a tendency towards cultural miscigenation and cosmopolitanism in balance with a nostalgia for the homeland and its cultural heritage; a slow and difficult adaptation to modernity, namely to illuminist ideas and capitalist economy. Millenarianism or millenarism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society after which all things will be changed in a positive (or sometimes negative or ambiguous) direction. ... Mysticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Cosmopolitanism pertains to wide international experience. ... Modernity is a term used to describe the condition of being Modern. Since the term Modern is used to describe a wide range of periods, modernity must be taken in context. ... An illuminist is an individual who claims to have an unusual amount of special and often secret enlightenment or knowledge regarding a specific subject. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ...

External links

• Associação Agostinho da Silva
• 2006 Centenário de Agostinho da Silva