Constant de Rebecque

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was a Swiss-French political activist, author, and philosopher, who among many other ideals, drew a distinction between "Liberty of the Ancients" in which the people directly participated in politics, and "Liberty of the Moderns" where people elected representatives, since greater population sizes made direct participation by all people impossible.

Benjamin Constant, Book X: "On the Action of Government with Regard to Property," in Benjamin Constant, Principles of Politics Applicable to a all Governments (1815), trans.

Mas o grande difusor da tese foi Benjamin Constant, que em 1815 publicou os seus Principes de Politique, nos quais defendia a criacao de um poder neutro, essencialmente conservador e passivo, voltado a manutencao do equilibrio politico.

This exhibition sheds light on the oeuvre of a major Orientalist painter of the Third Republic, sometimes confused with his namesake, the writer and politician Benjamin Constant. This account of a son of Toulouse who became a star in North America was organized in partnership with the Musee des Augustins, which in addition to possessing the most complete group of works by the artist (thirteen of them, including the colossal Entry of the Sultan Mehmed II into Constantinople, which remains in Toulouse) also owns other icons of Orientalist painting, including Saint John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia, by Jean-Paul Laurens, and The Massage, Hammam Scene, by Edouard Debat-Ponsan.

Isso posto, nos primordios da afirmacao do positivismo no Brasil, duas figuras serao inicialmente aludidas: o medico Pereira Barreto e o militar matematico Benjamin Constant.