Inteligência e Caos – Ensaio e Forma em Max Bense e Rogério Duarte relates the essay Brazilian Intelligence – a Cartesian reflection (2009), written by the German philosopher Max Bense (1910-1990), between 1961-1964, to the book Tropicaos (2003), a collection of texts by the Brazilian designer Rogério Duarte (1939-2016). Conducted by a single loose thread – which brings us especially to the early 1960 s, when Rogério Duarte was a student of Max Bense for a short period –, the research aims to fill a gap, or at least collaborate for a future filling, between thought these two multidisciplinary scholars (not well known to the general public) and who were simultaneously in contact with important cultural personalities of the time. From 1959 to 1969, based on facts and deviations, I worked with some aesthetic intersections between the Brazilian designer and the German philosopher, investigating how artistic exchanges with different avant-garde and intellectuals might have contributed to the articulation of national cultural production. I seek to problematize how bensean thinking about Brazilian intelligence might have designed an idea of the future for Brazil and how its categories might have taken shape in Rogério Duarte s work. And, still, how the fusion of the Cartesian spirit (present in the urbanism of the city of Brasília) with the tropical spirit (found in the city of Rio de Janeiro) could represent this Brazilian intelligence and be operated by the aesthetic ordering of Rogério Duarte. So, I set up a Graphic Organizer to present the interactions between Max Bense and Rogério Duarte with other intellectuals of that time.