Manuel José do Carmo Ferreira

National Correspondent

Class
Letters

Section
3rd Section | Philosophy, Psychology and Educational Sciences

Election

21.04.2015 (Corresponding Member)

Profile

Manuel José do Carmo Ferreira (b. 1943) began his academic career at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa – FLUL) in 1971, where he taught until his retirement as Full Professor of Philosophy in 2006. He also lectured at the Portuguese Catholic University between 1981 and 1994.
Throughout his career, Professor Carmo Ferreira developed a philosophical programme centred on the concepts of “”Reason and Freedom.”” This focus is evident in his doctoral dissertation – Hegel in Jena: The Reason of Freedom or the Justification of Philosophy, presented at FLUL in 1981, as well as in his ongoing research and teaching in these areas.
He is a founding member and the first elected president of the Portuguese Society for Kantian Studies, affiliated with the Kantsgesellschaft, and a founding member of the Luso-Brazilian Kantian Association.
Between 1986 and 1999, he served in various periods as President of the Pedagogical Council (three terms) and as President of the Faculty Board (three terms) at FLUL. He was also Director of the Revista da Faculdade de Letras and, from 2000 to 2008, Director and Scientific Coordinator of the University of Lisbon’s Philosophy Centre.
His academic and cultural interests include German philosophy, particularly idealism, and the relationship between reason and freedom in the philosophical context. Among his major works are his translation of Ludwig Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity and his doctoral dissertation on Hegel, which reflects his deep research into German idealism.
Throughout his career, Professor Carmo Ferreira received several distinctions. In 2006, he was awarded the JNICT/Latin Union Prize for his translation of The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach, published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1994 and reissued in 2001. Additionally, on 21 April 2015, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Humanities Class, in the 3rd Section of Philosophy, Psychology, and Educational Sciences, at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.