Mario Vieira de Mello

Mario Vieira de Mello (May 26, 1912 – March 30, 2006) was a Brazilian intellectual and diplomat. He is best known for his writings on philosophy, education, Brazilian culture, and political thought. He served as ambassador to Hungary, Guatemala, and Ghana.

Biography

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Mello was the son of diplomat Américo Vieira de Mello. He graduated from the National Faculty of Law, where he became acquainted with the poet Vinicius de Moraes and the novelist Octavio de Faria, before joining the Brazilian diplomatic service. In 1939, he was appointed Third Secretary by Getúlio Vargas, and three years later he served as an auxiliary at the Third Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics.

From 1962 to 1966, he served at the Brazilian diplomatic mission to UNESCO in Paris. In March 1968, he was appointed ambassador to Ghana by President Emílio Garrastazu Médici. Two years later, he was transferred to Guatemala, and in 1974 he was promoted to Minister of First Class and appointed ambassador to Hungary. He retired from diplomatic service in 1977.

Thought

Mello elaborated on the problem of estetismo, a tradition whose roots he traces back to the Renaissance, and which he argues are at the root of modern intellectual phenomena, such as rationalism and romanticism. According to him, this tendency manifests itself in Brazilian culture and social psychology through the prevalence of formal and outward concerns over the internal pursuit of truth and conscience. In Saudades do Carnaval, José Guilherme Merquior does not refute the idea of estetismo as a mark of Brazil's intellectual tradition, while remarking the satyrical critiques of Modernist writers of the country's cultural superficiality.

Mello explored the relations between democracy and education in the books O Conceito para uma Educação de Cultura no Brasil and O Cidadão. He distinguishes between egalitarian and ethical democracy, the former imposed by political power and the latter developed through culture.

Works

Desenvolvimento e Cultura: O problema do estetismo no Brasil (1963) O Conceito para uma Educação de Cultura no Brasil (1986) Nietzsche - O Sócrates de nossos tempos (1993) O Cidadão (1994) O Humanista (1996) O Homem Curioso (2001)