The hypothesis of Brazilian singularity is the single most powerful idea in Brazilian social thought. As no other, it has succeeded in circumscribing and shaping the agenda of research and reflection concerning the country's social experience. Conjured up a entirely unique compared to others, Brazilian society is elevated to an analytical category and, in the same measure, a privileged object of investigation, worthy of specific explanatory and interpretive efforts. By means of an analysis of some of the most famous interpretations of Brazil, this article revisits this theory, challenging some of its main manifestations with the initial goal of identifying elements that substantiate the claim. It also aims to assess show responses to a growing number of challenges to the sociological discourse of modernity by contemporary theories, including the debate on global modernity, multiple modernities, the post-colonial condition and the decolonization of knowledge/power.
social theory; sociological theory; modernity; Brazilian singularity; Brazilian social thought