National Faculty of Philosophy

The National Faculty of Philosophy (Portuguese: Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia, FNFi) was a unit of the University of Brazil located in Rio de Janeiro.

TypePublic undergraduate faculty

Active1939–1968

FounderGetúlio Vargas

Parent institution

University of Brazil

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National Faculty of Philosophy

Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia
Victor Nunes Leal, chair professor of political science, lecturing at FNFi
Type	Public undergraduate faculty
Active	1939–1968
Founder	Getúlio Vargas
Parent institution	University of Brazil
Academic staff	65 professors and 53 assistants (1949)
Undergraduates	950 (1949)
Address	Avenida Presidente Antônio Carlos, Centro , Rio de Janeiro , RJ , Brazil
Campus	Urban

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Founded in April 1939 by a federal decree restructuring the short-lived University of the Federal District (UDF), the Faculty was chiefly designed to prepare technicians, teachers, researchers, and bureaucrats in a context of economic and industrial expansion.^[1][2] It was divided into four ordinary sections – philosophy, sciences, letters, and pedagogy –, offering courses ranging from chemistry to sociology.^[3][4]

Envisioned as a model for other universities in Brazil, then a country with an incipient academic tradition, the Faculty counted among its teaching staff eminent Brazilian intellectuals, as well as French and Italian professors.^[5][6] At the time, foreign academics were also commonly employed at the newly-established Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo.^[7]

The Faculty, inspired by New School ideals,^[8] such as active and experiential learning, pioneered many aspects of Brazilian higher education, including the introduction of a pedagogy program, reforms to the literature and mathematics curricula, and a greater focus on academic research, notably in the fields of genetics,^[9] physics,^[10] and history.^[11] It also modernized the teaching of philosophy, which had formerly been under the influence of the Catholic church, especially the Jesuits.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Attracting students from across all regions of Brazil, it became a center of student activism throughout the 1950s and 1960s, which in turn made the institution a focus of resistance to the military dictatorship, with many of its professors and students targeted by State persecution.^[16][17]

For many decades, the Faculty was a benchmark for other academic institutions in Brazil, setting standards for both the quality and structure of courses.^[18] The graduated teachers, trained in a new pedagogical approach, contributed to a shift in 20th-century Brazilian secondary education.^[19]

It was extinguished in July 1968 as a result of the university reform enforced by the military regime,^[20] and its structure reorganized into several institutions that currently integrate the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, namely the School of Communication [pt], the Faculties of Education [pt] and Letters [pt], as well as the Institutes of Biology [pt], Physics [pt], Geosciences [pt], Chemistry [pt], and Mathematics.^[21][7]