The paper comments the skepticism present in the work of Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis according to Octávio Brandão's criticism in O niilista Machado de Assis, published in 1958. Brandão equals the terms "skepticism", "nihilism", "cynicism" and "pessimism" to devalue Machado de Assis' work. The article seeks to demonstrate that those terms denote very different philosophies; the article recognizes Machado's skepticism to sustain that his artistic value derives precisely from this skepticism.
Machado de Assis; Octávio Brandão; Philosophical Skepticism; Brazilian Literature