Freedom in the Cultural and Political Thought of Mario Vieira de Mello

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to interpret the concept of freedom in the work of the diplomat and philosopher Mario Vieira de Mello. From his three major books – Development and Culture (1963), The Citizen (1994) and The Humanist: The Order in the Soul of the Individual and in Society (1996) – some themes will be analyzed, like the complicated relationship between reason and freedom in the modern world, the tension between the structures of culture and the structures of power and the importance of a more humanistic conception of freedom to invigorate the ethical dimension of contemporary politics.