The Development of Science in Brazil (original) (raw)

1977, onference on Culture and the Professions, 5tudy Group on Natonal Development and International Relations, Institute of Developrent Stuldies, the University of Sussex

z" man BraZil, defEIldent up:::m on EurOf83I1 nation \\tUm had never been elose to the intellecblal and cultural changes .rum """,pt Euro.., sinre the Refonn aro the Renaissanre, had li ttle to shcw in terms af scientific develo~'c ln tlE nineteenth century, even in a rolanial way. Ear 1 y in the amtury the King af Portugal, D. João VI, oorres to Brazil f1eeing fran Nap:llecm , and establishes the first professional schools in the oo\.m:try-rredicine, engineering (first as a military school) and a few institutions such as the lbtanic Garden , a l.al:xJratory for drlrrestry, a M..1se1.m1 af Natural History and the National Library. only in early b.e1tieth renb.lry was a university af sorts established in the oountry. CatmJn sense knowledge assurres that science develops together With technoloy, and that ooth are more Dr less direct responses given by the cultural and educacional systems o/"oountry to the growth darands of its industry. Histori cal evidenre sho.'iS that the picture is much rrore o:::Jr!>licated than that., England was the renter af w:::>rld science in the seven~th oontury, and lost its leadership to France during the Industrial Revolutian iII. the seventeer1s, although it held the upper hand in technology. Germmy becarre the center Df ~ science early in the nineteenth century, decades before its p:)litical and ecooanic lIDification. In nore rroder:n tirres, .several oolU1tries were ab1e. to create fairly gcx:rl scientific instib.ltions in spite of re:rca.irUng at the perir;i1ery of the wor ld 1 S eronanic , scientifi c and technological centers-61.1d1 as t:l'E British Colonies, Jap:m, India and. O1in.a. A close look at the Brazilian oontercTf:orary history of science developnent Sh~iS that it has been the end product Df a few ..,11 identified social trenas. First , there \'6:'e the professional schools created by the Porb.lguese King frou 1808 on. 'ilie.se professiona1 schools inherited sare of the * Prepared for presentation CI1 the ConferemJe on OJlture and the Professions ,