Almachio Diniz and the scientific receptionof Nietzsche in Brazil (1900-1937)

Abstract

 This article analyzes the reception and appropriation of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy in the work of Bahian intellectual Almachio Diniz (1880-1937). We argue that Diniz promoted an “epistemic conversion” of Nietzschean thought, translating fundamental concepts, such as the Übermensch, into the grammar of Ernst Haeckel's biological rationalism and monism. Through the analysis of works and articles published between 1902 and 1937, we demonstrate how Diniz integrated Nietzsche into a “mechanistic system of worlds,” bringing him closer to Herbert Spencer’s evolutionism and Darwinian nomology. The study highlights Diniz's network of intellectual sociability, marked by direct dialogue with French Germanist Henri Lichtenberger, which allows us to question the centrality of the “Recife School” in the introduction of Nietzscheanism in Brazil and propose a decentralized cartography of this reception. It also addresses the prophetic dimension of “divine madness” and Diniz's claim of priority in 1937, interpreted as a reaction to the institutional and intellectual erasures suffered by the author during his lifetime. It concludes that his reading, although marked by eugenic and deterministic biases typical of his time, found its place in systematizing Nietzsche as a scientific and legal reference, informing Brazilian scientific traditions in the early decades of the 20th century.