Philosophical Essay (C1)

Portuguese philosophical prose has a distinctive grammar. It shares with philosophical writing in other Romance languages a taste for nominalization, recursive subordination, and argumentative connectors, but it has its own repertoire of moves — the meditative a saber, the weighty em derradeira análise, the doubled posto isto, the subjunctive-after-ainda que whose subtle opposition to apesar de + infinitive is invisible until you read enough of it to feel it. Lusophone philosophical prose has also been shaped by a specific tradition of essay-writing that runs from Eça de Queirós's editorial prose through Agostinho da Silva's aphoristic meditations, Eduardo Lourenço's elliptical cultural diagnostics, Vergílio Ferreira's novelistic essayism, and Manuel António Pina's poet-philosopher's notes. The result is a prose that is simultaneously highly formal and deeply personal — a register that C1 learners must be able to read.

This page presents an original philosophical reflection on memory and identity, annotates its most characteristic features, and explains why each device is characteristic of Portuguese philosophical writing in particular — not just of philosophical writing in general.

The passage

Somos, a cada instante, menos aquilo que recordamos do que aquilo que, recordando, reinventamos. A memória, dir-se-ia, não é um arquivo, mas um ato: um ato que, por seu turno, reconfigura o próprio arquivo que afirma consultar. De facto, se há coisa em que a filosofia contemporânea, a saber, a herdeira crítica do idealismo e da fenomenologia, tem insistido, é em que o passado não está dado de uma vez por todas, como supunha certa ingenuidade positivista, mas é incessantemente refeito pela própria atividade que o invoca.

Ora, daqui se segue uma consequência que só aparentemente é secundária: a nossa identidade, enquanto continuidade narrativa do eu, não precede a narração mas dela nasce. Ainda que seja verdade que nascemos num corpo, numa língua, numa história que não escolhemos — e apesar de reconhecer-se, com efeito, o peso inegável dessas condições prévias — a verdade é que a forma particular com que nos reconhecemos como os mesmos através do tempo depende inteiramente do trabalho simbólico que empreendemos, em cada ato de lembrar, sobre esse material recebido.

O que importa, pois, não é tanto o que nos aconteceu, mas o modo como organizamos o acontecido em narrativa. Por seu turno, a narrativa é ela mesma histórica: as histórias possíveis num dado tempo e lugar não são as mesmas que aquelas disponíveis noutro. Donde se segue que a própria possibilidade de ser um eu — um eu reconhecível, dizível, comunicável — está condicionada pelas formas narrativas que uma cultura põe à disposição dos seus membros. Como escreveu algures Eduardo Lourenço, com a ironia melancólica que sempre lhe foi própria, somos os cativos das histórias que nos dizem quem somos, sobretudo das que não sabíamos estar a ouvir. Em derradeira análise, é a esse ouvido que não se sabe ouvido que cabe a tarefa mais difícil: a de acolher a estranheza do que se julga saber já.

Grammar highlights

1. High-register argumentative connectors: tiered by formality

The passage is saturated with connectors, and the choice of connector signals the register. Portuguese philosophical prose has a distinct tier of connectors that are almost unused in speech but almost obligatory in essay writing.

2. Concessive subordinators with subjunctive: ainda que seja, embora, mesmo que

Portuguese has several concessive conjunctions, and a C1 learner must distinguish them carefully — particularly because PT-PT behaves differently from Spanish here.

Ainda que + present subjunctive opens a concessive clause. The present subjunctive seja here marks that the concession is acknowledged as possibly true but not asserted as such; the speaker suspends commitment to the truth of the concessive content. Compare:

The cousin conjunction embora + subjunctive is similar in meaning:

And mesmo que + subjunctive expresses a stronger hypothetical concession ("even if [hypothetically]"):

3. Apesar de takes the infinitive — the key PT-PT/Spanish divergence

This is where PT-PT and Spanish diverge sharply. Portuguese apesar de takes an infinitive, never a finite clause with que + subjunctive. Spanish a pesar de que takes the indicative or subjunctive of a finite verb (a pesar de que se reconoce, a pesar de que se reconozca). Portuguese apesar de que is highly marginal — where Spanish uses it, Portuguese uses apesar de + infinitive, or embora/ainda que + subjunctive.

The Portuguese system uses the infinitive where Spanish uses a finite verb. When a finite verb is needed, PT uses embora, ainda que, or mesmo que — each with its own subjunctive.

4. Nominalization-heavy register: a apreensão, o reconhecimento, a negação, a narração, a invocação, a atividade

Portuguese philosophical prose, like German philosophical prose, treats processes as objects of thought by turning them into nouns. The passage does this relentlessly:

The sentence is entirely built from nominalized abstract nouns. To understand it, a learner often has to mentally de-nominalize: read a memória não é um arquivo, mas um ato as "remembering is not looking things up in a file, but doing something that changes the file." The nominalized version, however, lets the philosopher talk about memory as a single concept — a move that requires the abstract noun.

5. Cleft and pseudo-cleft for focus: é... que, o que importa é... que

Portuguese philosophical prose uses cleft constructions — sentences split into two parts by é + que — to place focus on a specific element. The passage uses several:

Here the standard cleft é... que places the prepositional complement in focus: em que o passado não está dado. The standard order (a filosofia contemporânea tem insistido em que o passado não está dado) would be grammatically correct but focally flat. The cleft lets the writer emphasize the specific claim.

This is a pseudo-cleft: o que importa (what matters) is the topicalized element, é... mas introduces the focus. Pseudo-clefts are a key philosophical-essay move, used to refine or redirect the reader's attention within a sentence.

This is a double-clefted sentence, with two que-clauses embedded: the inner relative que não se sabe ouvido and the cleft frame é... que cabe. See Cleft Sentences and Pseudo-Cleft.

6. Mesoclisis in the conditional: dir-se-ia

Dir-se-ia is the conditional of dizer with a proclitic-turned-mesoclitic se. Decomposed: dir- (stem) + -se- (clitic) + -ia (conditional ending). The form means literally "it would say itself" — an impersonal passive — and conventionally translates as "one might say" or "it could be said."

This is the conditional mesoclisis, used as a hedge in philosophical writing to soften a claim. Compare:

Mesoclisis in the conditional is even more strongly marked as formal than mesoclisis in the future. In speech, no one says dir-se-ia; everyone says diria-se or more often restructures to avoid the form entirely. In essay, dir-se-ia is the standard hedge. See Mesoclisis: Conditional Forms.

7. Complex subordination and recursive embedding

The first sentence of paragraph two contains four levels of subordination:

Structure:

1. Main clause: a verdade é que...
2. Complement clause: a forma particular depende...
3. Relative clause modifying forma: com que nos reconhecemos como os mesmos através do tempo
4. Relative clause modifying trabalho simbólico: que empreendemos, em cada ato de lembrar, sobre esse material recebido
5. Parenthetical adverbial: em cada ato de lembrar

Each layer adds a new qualification. To parse it, find the main verb of each level in turn: é, then depende, then reconhecemos, then empreendemos. This is standard essay-register subordination.

8. The emphatic reflexive ele mesmo / ela mesma

Ela mesma (or ele mesmo) is an emphatic reflexive used to mark that the predicate applies to the subject specifically, not to some other referent. It is a signature move of philosophical prose: the writer insists that the property being attributed belongs to the named concept itself, not to anything related to it.

Here a própria possibilidade ("the very possibility") performs a similar emphatic function, using the adjective próprio — another philosophical-essay staple.

9. The quotation attributed to a real author

Como escreveu algures Eduardo Lourenço, com a ironia melancólica que sempre lhe foi própria, somos os cativos das histórias que nos dizem quem somos, sobretudo das que não sabíamos estar a ouvir.

The sentence is constructed as a citation but the quoted material is the author's own invention, offered in Lourenço's voice. Philosophical essays in Portuguese routinely dialogue with a canon of Lusophone thinkers — Eduardo Lourenço (1923–2020), Agostinho da Silva (1906–1994), Eduardo Prado Coelho (1944–2007), Vergílio Ferreira (1916–1996), Manuel António Pina (1943–2012), Maria Filomena Molder, Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Citing (or alluding to) one of these names signals participation in a tradition.

10. The se-passive and impersonal se

The passage uses the se-passive and impersonal se repeatedly as a way of removing human subjects from abstract claims:

The impersonal se keeps the philosophical register abstract. Where speech would say as pessoas dizem or nós dizemos, essay writing says dir-se-ia or diz-se. The shift is not cosmetic: it allows the argument to proceed without committing to any specific subject of knowing or doing.

The philosophical-essay tradition in Lusophone thought

The Portuguese essay has its own distinctive tradition. Eça de Queirós's newspaper writing in the late nineteenth century established a model of the elegant, ironic, densely-connected paragraph. Fernando Pessoa's prose fragments (the Livro do Desassossego and shorter essays) added a meditative, self-reflexive quality. Agostinho da Silva made the essay a vehicle for aphoristic philosophy. Eduardo Lourenço used it to diagnose Portuguese cultural identity — his book O Labirinto da Saudade (1978) is a canonical example of the genre. Vergílio Ferreira wrote novel-length essays on mortality and presence. Manuel António Pina combined essay, poetry, and criticism.

Reading in this tradition, you will recognize a certain tone — reflective, slightly melancholy, willing to circle back and qualify itself, patient with long sentences and slow developments. The grammar we have analyzed is the instrument of that tone.

Brazilian philosophical prose shares the grammar but often has a different rhythm — more declarative, more academically cadenced, more directly tied to French post-structuralism and phenomenology as received in Brazilian universities. The PT-PT tradition has remained closer to the nineteenth-century essay form.

Common mistakes

Cultural context

Portuguese philosophical essay-writing has a specific institutional home: the weekly literary supplements of Público, Expresso, and formerly JL - Jornal de Letras, together with small-press publishers like Relógio d'Água, Tinta-da-China, and Assírio & Alvim. The essays read there — by contemporary writers like Gustavo Rubim, Maria Filomena Molder, António Guerreiro, Silvina Rodrigues Lopes — continue the tradition of the long paragraph, the connective tissue of ora and posto isto, the deliberate unfashionableness of donde se segue. A learner who can read these supplements is reading, in real time, the living high register of Portuguese prose.

Key takeaways