Primarily a positivist, influenced heavily by Auguste Comte, he was the founder of the positivist movement in Brazil (Sociedade Positivista do Brasil, Brazilian Positivist Society), and later this led to his republican views. He left the Brazilian Positivist society because of internal disagreements, but remained an ardent pupil of Comte until the end of his life. The Brazilian town of Benjamin Constant, near the Amazon river and the Peruvian border, was named after him. He was considered the founder of the Republic in the Constitution of 1891.