Faculty & Contact

The Struggle for Comprehensive Democracy

Dr. Gilbert’s research has both a philosophical or theoretical wing, and an empirical or practical wing.

Philosophical Foundations:
 His research is based in the dialectical political philosophy of authors like Hegel and Marx. “Dialectic” names the process of human learning. Dialectic refers as much to the way a child learns to speak as to the way whole societies learn the imperatives of their own freedom.  This means, then, that freedom is not merely “choice”, which is our common-sense understanding, but is rather our capacity to enter into increasingly sophisticated forms of relationship with each other and our environment. While our processes of learning can frequently be diverted, stalled or can even regress, our capacity to learn to relate to each other in better and better ways is a permanent and essential feature of what it means to be human. Dr. Gilbert focuses in particular on the dialectic of society, economy and politics. His recent monograph, The Vitality of Contradiction: Hegel, Politics and the Dialectic of Liberal-Capitalism (Awarded the Canadian Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2015), articulates the philosophical arguments for this view of dialectic and freedom, holding as its conclusion that further developments in human freedom must move beyond the constraints of contemporary liberal-capitalism.

Empirical Studies: 
Dr. Gilbert researches empirical features of this theory by studying social movements in Latin America, and especially the Movement of Landless Rural Workers of Brazil (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra do Brasil, or MST). The MST is a large and very successful social movement made up of people who are, when they first enter the movement, among the poorest and most marginalized people in the world. Members of the MST seize the under-utilized estates of wealthy landowners and build self-sufficient farming cooperatives on them. Of course this strategy meets with serious and often violent resistance. Nonetheless, the MST now has some 1.5 million members, thousands of successful cooperatives, and its own university near São Paulo, where it trains its workers and others who come from across Latin America and the Caribbean to learn the MST’s methods and philosophical principles. Dr. Gilbert’s research focuses on the ways in which the MST attempts to live up to its own mandate, which is to ensure the “supremacy of labour over capital” and to “build socialist values”. This involves studying the MST’s efforts to extend democracy into the sphere of economics and work and, as such, to build forms of community predicated on more sophisticated concepts of freedom than those of the liberal juridical system and capitalist economy that the MST challenges. Recently, Dr. Gilbert has extended this research into an exploration of the organizations of lawyers that provide greatly needed advocacy to the MST and other social movements, “Terra de Direitos”, “A Rede Nacional de Advogados e Advogadas Populares (RENAP) and “Dignitatis”.

Recent Publications

The Vitality of Contradiction: Hegel, Politics and the Dialectic of Liberal-Capitalism. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.  Awarded the Canadian Philosophical Association Biennial Book Prize, 2015.

“’Socialist Values’ and Cooperation in Brazil’s Movement of Landless Rural Workers”, with Aldiva Sales Diniz, Latin American Perspectives, 2013.

“Caridade e Exclusão entre Dante e Marx”, Teoria, Discurso e Ação Política, Universidade de São Paulo, 2013.

O MST e a Propriedade Privada: Os argumentos filosóficos que justificam a ocupação da terra”, Homem, Espaco, Terra, Ano IV, No. 2, October, 2010.

“Tragédia como o enigma político:  Explorações de Sófocles, de Shakespeare e de Tournier”,  Integração, Sao Paulo, 2007.

“Workers’ Power and Socialism: A Study of Brazil’s Movement of Landless Workers”, Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination.

Recent Public Papers

“A Questão de Línguas: Entre a Filosofia e os Movimentos Sociais”, Centro Acadêmico de Filosofia, Universidade de São Paulo”, April 13, 2015.

“William Blake and Hegel on the Road to Jerusalem”, Ontario-Quebec Hegel Organization, March 28, 2015.

“Reason and Reductio: Kant’s Deduction of the Pure Concepts”, The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant Philosophy Symposium, Bishop’s University, November 28, 2014.

“Boccaccio and the Pathos of Laughter”, at the Bishop’s University Boccaccio Symposium, November 14, 2014.

“Les coopératives et la démocratie dans le Mouvement des Travailleurs Ruraux Sans Terre du Brésil,” upcoming at the Centre d’études et de recherches sur le Brésil, Université de Québec à Montréal, April 7, 2013.

“Love of the Nostro in Dante’s Divine Comedy”, upcoming at the Dante Symposium, Bishop’s University, February 22, 2013.

“Treasury of the Sun: Reflections on Book VI of Plato’s Republic,” Toronto Philosophy Symposium, June 13, 2012.

“Le Vin et le Sang chez Diderot et Hegel”, I Jornada da Filosofia Moderna, Universidade Federal de Parana, Curitiba, Brazil, December 16, 2011.

“Contradiction and the Fluidity of Life: Case Studies from Logic and Ethics,” Ryerson University Department of Philosophy Colloquium, September 27, 2011.

“Marx’s Theory of Exploitation”, Ryerson University Humanities Program, September 27, 2011.

“Adam Smith’s Critique of Mercantilism in The Wealth of Nations,” Toronto Philosophy Symposium, June 10, 2011.

“Exclusão, Caridade e a Teoria Marxista de Exploração ”, Conference: Teoria, Discurso e Ação Política, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, April 8, 2011.

“Os Usos e abusos do princípio da não-contradição”, Universidade Federal do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, April 12, 2011.

“A Filosofia da Propriedade Privada: Explorando o Caso do Movimento Sem Terra”, O Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos of the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 11, 2011.

“Marx e os movimentos sociais na América Latina hoje: O caso do Movimento Sem Terra”, Universidade São Judas Tadeu, São Paulo, Brazil, April 5, 2011.

“From Literacy to Autonomy: The radical pedagogy of Brazil’s Movement of Landless Rural Workers”, International Development Week, Bishop’s University, February 1, 2011.

“Invasion or Occupation: Justice, Private Property and the Movement of Landless Workers in Brazil,” Guest lecture, St. Thomas University, November 18, 2010.

“As Belas Artes e a Verdade: O Nascimento do Saber”, Centre for Human Sciences, Universidade Estadual Vale de Acaraú, Sobral, Brasil, October 20, 2010.

“As Belas Artes e a Verdade: O Nascimento do Saber”, Campus do Retoria, Auditoria Central, Universidade Estadual Vale de Acaraú, Sobral, Brasil, October 22, 2010.

“Political Right and Fichte’s Deduction of the Concept of Commonwealth”, at the Toronto Philosophy Symposium, University of Toronto, June 16, 2010.

“Private Property of the Means of Production: From Roemer to the Brazilian Movement of the Landless”, at the Society for Socialist Studies, Concordia University, May 31, 2010.

“Brazil’s Movement of Landless Workers: A New Specter”, at Historical Materialism, York University, May 14, 2010.

“Invasion or Occupation: Justice, Private Property the Movement of Landless Workers in Brazil,” Guest Lecture, Ryerson University, Toronto, February 5, 2009.

“Contradição e Justiça na Filosofia Política de Hegel”, Guest Lecture at the Universidade São Judas Tadeu, São Paulo, Brazil.  May 12, 2008.

“O Declínio e Auge da Liberdade:  Filosofia Política de Hegel”, Guest Lecture at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.  May 21, 2007.

“O Declínio e Auge da Liberdade:  Filosofia Política de Hegel”, Guest Lecture at the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.  May 25, 2007.