Brazilian Humanities Academia Faces Productivity Crisis Amid Loss of Intellectual Figures Like Antonio Candido

The Brazilian humanities and social sciences are experiencing a paradoxical situation: unprecedented academic production coexists with a severe lack of broadly erudite intellectuals, a gap highlighted by the recent loss of Antonio Candido. This crisis stems from a productivity-driven incentive structure that prioritizes quantitative article output over quality teaching, public debate, and substantive intellectual work. The academic system, heavily reliant on metrics like the Lattes Platform, has shifted focus from deep reflection to frenetic publication, often encouraging questionable practices like ghost co-authorship and submissions to predatory journals. This environment, which emerged over the past two decades, undermines the potential for producing new figures of Candido's caliber, such as Celso Furtado or Florestan Fernandes. The pressure to publish has led to strategies focused on output volume rather than research inquiry, with ethical breaches becoming increasingly common in supervisor-student relationships and international publishing. The situation calls for urgent debate on alternative accountability measures that restore intellectual freedom and thoughtful engagement.