The objectives are to investigate the characteristics of conservatism and liberalism in Brazil, verify whether the concepts of "organic idealism" and "constitutional idealism" are capable of describing and evaluating the principal "forms of thought" which have dominated Brazilian political and social thinking since the last quarter of the 19th century, and formulate a hypothesis on the way these currents of thought respond to the challenges raised by the country’s political development. The analysis will focus less on the substantive content of ideologies and worldviews than on describing the underlying "forms of thought": intellectual structures and theoretical categories based on which reality is perceived, practical experience is elaborated, and political action is organized.
political thought; organic idealism; constitutional idealism; conservatism; liberalism