Sisyphus in the cradle or Juan María Gutiérrez and the organization of science teaching at the Argentine University.

Abstract

The institutionalization of scientific research in Argentina encountered various difficulties in the first half of the 19th century, stemming both from the lack of adequate training among the ruling elites and from economic conditions that imposed serious limitations on any attempt at cultural renewal. It was only in the last quarter of the century that economic, social, and cultural transformations began to take place, offering a more stimulating framework for state support for scientific activities, in light of two novel conceptions: greater integration into international capitalism, which required the establishment of new professions for its development; and, on the ideological level, the intersection of the Enlightenment with the valorization of democracy. It is around this intersection that Gutiérrez himself would situate his discourse when justifying the creation of the Department of Exact Sciences and defending the importance of an education centered on the exact sciences for all levels of the school system.

Gutiérrez then became, in fact, the founder of scientific studies at the University of Buenos Aires, which would only have a continuous existence at that institution from his rectorship onwards.