We present a synthesis of the trajectory of the philosopher and historian of ideas Antonio Paim, followed by the interview we did to him. In the interview, the philosopher recounts his long intellectual journey, which went through marxism and kantism. His political career went through communism in youth and liberalism in maturity. Paim knew what it is like to be a dissident, when he was a member of the Communist Party and ended up being a political prisoner, and what it (...) is like to be linked to the establishment, when he was an advisor to the presidency of the Liberal Front Party. Paim’s long intellectual trajectory, with its changes and intensities, refers to the very history of republican Brazil, with its dramatic twists and turns. Being an unprecedented report, the interview helps to understand the brazilian intellectual culture of the second half of the 20th century and how intellectuals articulate themselves in relation to power. (shrink)