Celso Furtado: intelectual reformista a serviço da (n)ação

Abstract

Celso Monteiro Furtado (1920-2004) is one of the most influenceful Latin American economists and social scientists of the entire 20th century. For some time now, he has been in the classic category, being considered an indispensable author to understand Brazil and to reflect on the development-underdevelopment problematic. His vast and fruitful work, forged over six decades, consists of almost forty books, more than one hundred essays and academic articles, in addition to leaflets, prefaces, presentations, reviews, interviews, conferences, reports and plans. Thus, as we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of this Brazilian political economist, it is necessary to resume and reflect on his intellectual and political trajectory, bringing together the elements that allow us to portray him as an independent theorist, reformist intellectual and public man focused on action and in the service of the nation. This is exactly the intention of this article. In order to achieve it, the author’s intellectual memories, the interviews he gave to various personalities and the works of numerous interpreters who wrote about the author’s life and work were used. The research allowed us to conclude that the intellectual trajectory of Celso Furtado translates the meaning that he always attributed to the exercise of intellectual activity, that is, a frequent struggle in favor of the social and economic (re)construction of the nation.