Between originality and novelty

Miguel Baptista Pereira’s hermeneutical proposal

Abstract

Being a notable figure from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Coimbra’s University in the second half of the 20th century, Miguel Baptista Pereira (1929-2007) has left us a unique philosophical legacy. Having developed work for almost half a century our author reveals, by his inumerous studies, a rare mastery over the historical horizon of the philosophical field, which is made clear by his demonstrated versatility over many themes. Considering the value of plurality, vital in all his works, our study aims to find in Baptista’s writings a common ground, which is fundamentally a hermeneutic way of thought. Starting from the concepts of originality, novelty, tradition and crisis, gathered by the linguistic medium of sense, we propose three principles that support the thought of Baptista Pereira.