Abstract
The Portuguese public intellectual and philosopher António Sérgio (1883–1969) proposed in his essays a critical rationalism with affinities with Dewey’s experientialism, insisting on a dialogical and personalistic neo-Kantian ethics. Inspired by Proudhon’s philosophy of work, and by the discussion in France, around 1910, of the practical/technical origin of human intelligence and the role of technique in scientific development (Bergson, Durkheim, Louis Weber, etc.) he highlighted the attitude of experimentalism of some members the Portuguese elite of the sixteenth century related to the Portuguese navigations, as well as Galileo’s interest in techniques, insisting on the practical factors favouring the Scientific Revolution. He made pertinent reflections on the relations between democracy and technical expertise, between capitalism, industry, war and the human condition (with a Marxist flavour). After the Great Depression, and echoing Veblen, he announced the possibility of an Age of Abundance, and showed how Capitalism sabotaged that real possibility. He insisted on the advantages of Cooperativism and Planning, and committed himself to the development of Cooperatives, paying a high price for his opposition to Salazar’s regime. In his last texts, during the 1950s, he favoured an holistic/ecological view of human affairs. He always kept the Kantian distinction between means and ends as essential to the comprehension and conduct of policies, avoiding any fatalist view of the role of Technique.
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Notes
- 1.
Epigraph to the first text of Ensaios I [Essays I] (1920), entitled “Science and Education”, probably written during First World War. When possible we quote from the modern edition of Sérgio’s complete works (publisher: Sá da Costa).
- 2.
The Renascença Portuguesa [Portuguese Renaissance] was a Society created in 1911, in Oporto, with the objective of intervening civically and culturally, giving content to the republican revolution of 1910. It included artists and intellectuals, such as Teixeira de Pascoais, Leonardo Coimbra, António Carneiro, Raúl Proença, António Sérgio, among others. In 1921, a dissident group headed by Proença, of socialist sympathies and rationalist hue, founded Seara Nova, a more active intellectual movement publishing the magazine Seara Nova. The name Seara Nova [New Harvest], comes from a poem by the Proudhonian socialist, poet and philosopher Antero de Quental (1842–1891) who inspired the movement: “operários do futuro, semeadores da seara nova, que lançam uma ideia em cada cova” [workers of the future, seeders of the new harvest, who launch an idea in each pit] (Quental, 1875: 49).
- 3.
Public education was one of the main concerns of the First Republic, not least because it was necessary to combat Catholic dominance of teaching. Nonetheless, the ideas of Education Nouvelle (similar to Dewey’s Progressive Education) never had real practical support from the republican regime, although Sérgio was Minister of Public Education during 1923.
- 4.
This thesis is related to that of the philologist and historian Leonardo Olshki (1885–1962) in the book Galileo und Seine Zeit (1927): Galileo transcended the infertile erudition of his scientific predecessors, by making contact with the new tradition of applying mathematics to technological issues, such as linear perspective, mining, fortification, ballistics, and tradition, which is invoked in the first day of the Discorsi (Cohen, 1994: §5.2).
- 5.
This discussion, which is systematised in Floris Cohen’s books on the emergence of modern science, is important for the old Portuguese debate regarding the causes of Portuguese decadence after the period of navigation and Discoveries, which gave rise to several controversies during the First Republic. These have lasted until today.
- 6.
See also Príncipe and Martins (2012: 73−76).
- 7.
On Sérgio and ethics and religion, see “Nota sobre o carácter místico do racionalismo sergiano” in Príncipe and Martins (2012).
- 8.
See Príncipe and Martins (2012: 69−73).
- 9.
- 10.
Quote from The New York Times, August 6, 1932 (cit. in Adair, 1970: 26). It should be pointed out that if the American technocrats erred on the date of the collapse, as Adair shows, the outbreak of Second World War is a cause of perplexity, as it occurred after the Great Depression.
- 11.
Veblen describes himself as an educator (his intellectual relations with John Dewey might have favoured Sérgio’s knowledge of some of Veblen’s ideas). The Technical Alliance, which was directly inspired by Veblen, was the direct predecessor of the technocratic movement (see Adair, 1970: 16, 21).
- 12.
O Diabo [The Devil] was a weekly newspaper published in Portugal between 1934 and 1940, when it was closed down by the Estado Novo censors. Many of the intellectuals opposed to the regime wrote for it.
- 13.
Only Barros and Costa (1983: 19–29) mention this subject, to suggest that Sérgio was too optimistic about the possibility of dominating nature, an impossibility that modern ecology has demonstrated. These authors refer to the agrobiology articles published in the O Diabo by Sérgio in 1939, ignoring the bibliography that Sérgio read, for example the book Nations can Live at Home by O. W. Willcox (1935); Sérgio’s intervention must also be understood in the context of his pacifist conceptions (world peace was in fact threatened, and Chapter VIII of the book by Willcox is called “The price of peace”).
- 14.
Sérgio mentions as a good example the Tennessee Valley Authority, whose most prestigious director was David Lilienthal (1899–1981).
References
António Sérgio’s Texts
Sérgio, A. (1915). A opinião pública americana perante a Guerra. A Águia, 2ª série, vol. 7, 46−48.
Sérgio, A. (1916). Educação geral e actividade particular. Imprensa Comercial.
Sérgio, A. (1918a). O ensino como factor do ressurgimento nacional. Renascença Portuguesa, Porto (republished in Sérgio, 2008, 209−241).
Sérgio, A. (1918b). Da opinião pública e da competência em democracia. Pela Grei 1, 46−53 (republished in Sérgio, 1971−1974, Ensaios I, 225−238).
Sérgio, A. (1918c). A vida moral é um processo psicológico.... In Pela Grei 1918. Notas de Literatura portuguesa, in Sérgio, 1971−1974, Ensaios III, 118−129.
Sérgio, A. (1920a). Educação e Filosofia. In Sérgio, 1971−1974, Ensaios I, 131−167.
Sérgio, A. (1920b). Ensaios I. Editores Annuario do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Renascença Portuguesa, Porto (republished in Sérgio, 1971−1974).
Sérgio, A. (1920c). Sobre a reforma da educação Democracia e autoridade técnica, autonomia e fiscalização. Probably from A Pátria, Rio de Janeiro, newspaper founded by João do Rio, in António Sérgio’ estate.
Sérgio, A. (1920d). Sobre a reforma do ensino. A Pátria, in António Sérgio’ estate.
Sérgio, A. (1923). Divagações pedagógicas a propósito de um livro de H. G. Wells. In Sérgio, 1971−1974, Ensaios II, 165−188.
Sérgio, A. (1926). O Reino Cadaveroso (republished in Sérgio, 1971−1974, Ensaios II, 25−61).
Sérgio, A. (1938). Tecnocracia. Seara Nova 565, 9−13.
Sérgio, A. (1939). O programa cooperatista por Carlos Gide, vol. 2. Translation and preface by António Sérgio. Seara Nova.
Sérgio, A. (1971−1974). Ensaios, 8 vols. Livraria Sá da Costa Editora.
Sérgio, A. (1974a). Democracia, diálogos de doutrina democrática, Alocução aos socialistas, Cartas do terceiro Homem. Livraria Sá da Costa Editora.
Sérgio, A. (1974b). Introdução geográfico-sociológica à história de Portugal. Livraria Sá da Costa Editora.
Sérgio, A. (2008). Ensaios sobre educação. Preface by M. F. Patrício, colecção Pensamento Português. Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda.
Other References
Adair, D. (1970). The Technocrats 1919–1967: A case study of conflict and change in a social movement (Master thesis). Simon Fraser University.
Barros, H., & Costa, F. F. (1983). António Sérgio: Uma nobre utopia. O Jornal.
Boyer, E. M. (2008). Beyond Marx -ism and Dewey -ism: A ‘red pragmatism’ for the twenty-first century (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Minnesota.
Chandler, L. V. (1970). America’s greatest depression, 1929–1941. Harper and Row.
Cohen, H. F. (1994). The scientific revolution: A historiographical inquiry. University of Chicago Press.
Dard, O. (1999). Jean Coutrot: De l’ingénieur au prophète. Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises.
d’Avenel, V. G. (1915). À qui profitera la guerre. Revue des Deux Mondes, 25, 241–264.
Kerschensteiner, G. (1911). The fundamental principles of continuation schools. The School Review, 19(3), 162–177.
Nocher, J. (1938). Manifeste de l’abondance: Charte du socialisme distributive. Nantal.
Príncipe, J., & Martins, H. (2012). Quatro novos estudos sobre António Sérgio, ed. J. Príncipe (with a postface by H. Martins). Caleidoscópio.
Quental, A. de. (1875). Odes Modernas (2nd ed.). Livraria Chardron.
Rotenstreich, N. (1979). Practice and realization, studies in Kant’s moral philosophy. Martinus Nijhoff.
Sigaut, F. (2000). Homo Faber Documents d’un débat oublié, 1907–1941. http://www.francois-sigaut.com/phocadownload/Inedits/Ouvrages-inedits/homo%20faber-documents-1907-1941.pdf. Accessed 1 Nov 2020.
Weber, L. (1913). Le rhythme du progrès. Felix Alcan.
Willcox, O. W. (1930). Principles of agrobiology, or, the laws of plant growth in relation to crop production. Palmer Pub. Corp.
Willcox, O. W. (1935). Nations can live at home. W. W. Norton and Cie.
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Príncipe, J. (2023). António Sérgio: Critical Rationalism and Technology. In: Jerónimo, H.M. (eds) Portuguese Philosophy of Technology. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14630-5_2
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