João Ohara
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oharajrm.com
João Ohara
@oharajrm.com
3K followers 850 following 760 posts
Theory and Philosophy of History @ University of São Paulo - USP (Brazil)
Interested in narrative, trust, and epistemic dependence.
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oharajrm.com
My paper on historical (anti-)realism is now available in EarlyView on @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social's website. It's my attempt at mapping the conceptual space in what I see as a deeply confused landscape, rife for unproductive polemics.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A screenshot of the paper's page on the journal website. Paper title: On Historical (Anti-)Realism. Author: João Ohara. Abstract: The problem of historical realism has gained some new momentum recently, with a fresh challenge to what is taken to be an anti-realist hegemony in the theory and philosophy of history. Unfortunately, this has also provided the opportunity for the reheating of old polemics and lazy scholarship that characterized the 1990s reaction to “postmodernism.” Ill-defined questions distract us from more important issues. Here, I offer a map that aims to clarify the conceptual space. I distinguish between a metaphysical problem, which is the problem of historical realism proper, and an epistemological problem, which is sometimes treated under the same phrase but is more adequately called the problem of historical skepticism. I then consider what the targets of each of these discussions are and map the conceptual space of possibilities in them.
January 22, 2026 at 12:46 PM
oharajrm.com
I had to export this from Instagram.
A drawing of a person reaching for a bright light with the caption "me when my intuition was correct once again". An additional caption reads "analytic philosophers be like".
May 13, 2025 at 1:05 PM
oharajrm.com
My article on historical (anti-)realism has been accepted in @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social and is now going through the pipeline. It's scheduled for the March 26 issue, so it may take a while to go up online. I wrote it during my sabbatical last year, while I was at Queen's University.
A screenshot of a Word document. It reads: article. On Historical (anti-)realism. João Ohara. The problem of historical realism has gained some new momentum recently, with a fresh challenge to what is taken to be an anti-realist hegemony in the theory and philosophy of history. Unfortunately, this has also provided the opportunity for the reheating of old polemics and lazy scholarship that characterized the 1990s reaction to “postmodernism.” Ill-defined questions distract us from more important issues. Here, I offer a map that aims to clarify the conceptual space. I distinguish between a metaphysical problem, which is the problem of historical realism proper, and an epistemological problem, which is sometimes treated under the same phrase but is more adequately called the problem of historical skepticism. I then consider what the targets of each of these discussions are and map the conceptual space of possibilities in them.
May 9, 2025 at 1:18 PM
oharajrm.com
Wife went to a colony established by Dutch families here sometime mid-20th century and brought me a pack of stroopwaffels. These are pretty good - the first good ones I found in Brazil ever since coming back from Leiden in 2015. This is my version of Proust's madeleines.
A package of stroopwaffels.
March 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
oharajrm.com
I will not be taking any questions.
February 15, 2025 at 10:52 PM
oharajrm.com
I don't know if any of you are into mechanical keyboards, but I just wanted to express how much I love the sound of my new rainy75.
A meme cartoon face expressing great satisfaction.
January 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
oharajrm.com
A white man in a suit with his eyes closed. The captions say "Jesus, I see what you've done for other people, and I want that for me."
January 6, 2025 at 10:35 PM
oharajrm.com
Post the cover of a book you read way before you were ready for it.
A photo of the book "Les Mots et les Choses", by Michel Foucault.
November 25, 2024 at 10:53 AM
oharajrm.com
Heidegger scholars:
A monkey puppet looks around awkwardly.
November 23, 2024 at 2:18 PM
oharajrm.com
I had a lot of fun revisiting this. Here's the one for the philosophy of history.
A white chart about the types of philosophy of history paper. 1) History is just like literature; 2) Historical theorists got it wrong. Read this analytic philosopher instead; 3) History is definitely not like literature; 4) Hayden White was wrong; 5) Historians should know a lil bit about epistemology; 6) Vibing about time; 7) 18th Century German dude had some good idea (but was racist); 8) Why history is not like the sciences (but should be); 9) Comp lit paper that wasn't accepted in comp lit journal; 10) Why history is not like the sciences (and shouldn't be); 11) Whatever the latest French dude wrote is great; 12) Nazism bad.
November 17, 2024 at 10:18 PM
oharajrm.com
This part always cracks me up.
Part of a flowchart on what kind of philosopher you are. The box reads, "You're a sexy murder poet. How do you feel about ethnonationalist fascism?" The arrow reads, "love it!" The target box reads, "Heideggerian".
November 11, 2024 at 10:39 AM
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October 4, 2024 at 4:18 PM
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A portrait of French philosopher Michel Foucault: bald white man with glasses and turtleneck shirt.
October 4, 2024 at 11:34 AM
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Posso falar que quando cheguei era tudo mato?
September 17, 2024 at 1:36 AM
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I've just sent these proofs to the publisher!
Section of a screenshot of a PDF file. It reads: Brill. Journal of the Philosophy of History 18. Stories are still not lived but told. João Rodolfo Munhoz Ohara. Assistant Professor, Institute for History, Federal U.
June 3, 2024 at 9:48 PM
oharajrm.com
*looks at the Projects folder* Well, at least I'm in good company.

(From Eric Schliesser's latest post: digressionsimpressions.substack.com/p/leibniz-th...)
Screenshot of a text. It reads: "In the early 1680s Leibniz projected a Latin work, Elementa physicae (recall this post for a different angle on it). Not unlike many of his other book projects this work was never completed."
May 15, 2024 at 6:11 PM
oharajrm.com
My entry on Louis O. Mink is now live in Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method. Unfortunately, it's behind a pay wall, but I can share a preprint if anyone is interested. Just get in touch!

#philhist

www.bloomsburyhistorytheorymethod.com/article?doci...
Screenshot of a website. The header has a menu icon, the logo for the series Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method, and a loupe icon. Under the header, a bar has a star icon, a printer icon, and a quote icon. Under that, the title of the article reads, "Louis O. Mink, by João Ohara". Under that, there is the DOI and a warning about subscription being required to access the contents of the page.
May 9, 2024 at 5:57 PM
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Wow, it was really cool! What an experience... now, I'm looking forward to seeing what photographers got!
April 8, 2024 at 10:51 PM
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On April 4, 11:30, I will give the talk "History and Inductive Risk, or the Social Harms of Bad Histories" here at Queen's. I will discuss whether and how the science and values debate in the philosophy of science can help us in the debate over history and values.
Poster for a talk at Queen's University, Canada. The title is "History and Inductive Risk, or the Social Harms of Bad Histories". The author is Dr. João Ohara, Assistant Professor at the Institute for History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and currently Good Family Visiting Faculty Research Fellow at the Department of History, Queen's University. The talk is scheduled for April 4, 11:30, in room 514, Watson Hall. Illustrating the poster is the painting The Third of May 1808, by Goya, and a portrait of the speaker.
March 25, 2024 at 7:03 PM
oharajrm.com
I love the graph view of Obsidian - strange as it seems to others, it helps me keep notes organized.
(In the node cluster pictured, reading notes are in orange and theme aggregators are in red)
A graph containing nodes, which represent individual entries in a note management system, interconnected via links to one another (references).
March 13, 2024 at 12:40 AM
oharajrm.com
So it seems like I'm entering my "reassessing Neurath" phase, then. Cool.

(from Don Howard's "Lost Wanderers in the Forest of Knowledge", p. 5)
On Neurath's view, it is a contingent fact, well supported by historical evidence, that we do choose among empirically equivalent theories on the basis of our estimation of the likelihood of their serving our favored social and political ends, this especially in sciences like economics and sociology. Denial of this fact being symptomatic of pseudo-rationalism, it were better that we be honest with ourselves and others about our so choosing. The cause of scientific objectivity and the cause of human freedom (for Neurath those two causes are one) are better served by open, public debate about the values whereby we choose, for the agents of regressive social and political interests hide their agendas behind the disguise of pseudo-rationalism.
March 11, 2024 at 5:34 PM
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Importing these in Brazil would be prohibitively expensive given shipping, so I'm glad to be spending some time up north.
March 10, 2024 at 8:24 PM
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Stole from overseas.
March 8, 2024 at 1:38 AM
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Just started reading this bad boy here and having my mind blown by the sheer amount of appeals to intuition. 🤯 (I'm on the chapter on Kripke) Are you f** serious? #philsky
February 24, 2024 at 6:17 PM
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Advertise your account with just one image.
An image of the painting " The Treachery of Images" by René Magritte. It shows the image of a pipe and the following words written under it: "ceci n'est pas un pipe", or this is not a pipe.
September 22, 2023 at 1:40 AM