A luta das ideias : os sentidos da recepção do pensamento de Rudolf Von Ihering em Tobias Barreto

Abstract

This study analyzes the meanings produced in the reception of Rudolf von Ihering’s legal thought in the work of Tobias Barreto, within the context of Brazilian legal debates in the second half of the nineteenth century. It addresses the problem of how ideas originated in German legal thought were appropriated, mobilized, and reinscribed by Tobias Barreto in specific theoretical, pedagogical, and cultural disputes, moving beyond interpretations grounded in the paradigm of influence or the mere importation of ideas. The aim is to examine how Iheringian categories are actively and selectively employed in Tobias Barreto’s writings, thereby producing historically situated meanings. The research adopts a theoretical-methodological framework based on Cultural History and reception theory, particularly drawing on the contributions of Roger Chartier, understanding reception as a process of intellectual appropriation shaped by discursive practices and specific contexts. The corpus consists of the texts Sobre uma nova intuição do direito (1881) and Jurisprudência da vida diária (1878), in which the dialogue with Ihering appears explicitly and with significant conceptual relevance. The analysis demonstrates that the reception of Ihering’s thought in Tobias Barreto assumes multiple meanings, operating as a resource of scientific legitimation, a methodological instrument, a pedagogical translation, and a form of critical appropriation, while also articulating a broader intellectual project aimed at the renewal of legal knowledge in Brazil. It concludes that this reception does not constitute an uncritical doctrinal adherence, but rather a strategic use of foreign legal categories in response to the intellectual and legal disputes of the nineteenth-century in Brazil.