Sociology is a science which seeks to establish general propositions about social phenomena, yet its investigations stemmed, since its origins, from different national traditions, addressing to specific problems. The article examines the formation of Brazilian sociology as an intellectual process marked by the perception of possible peculiarities of the Brazilian society toward general deterministic models. It argues that, in facing this dilemma, Brazilian sociology has offered an important contribution to building generic knowledge of social life insofar as, with its studies, Brazilian experience can be place in comparative terms. Such proposition is illustrated by a brief analysis of the debate on the racial question along the classical period of the Brazilian social science - from the end of XIXth century to the midlle of XXth century.