Domingo F. Sarmiento, Rousseau and the Emergence of the Self-Advertising Public Intellectual in XIXth Century Argentina

• In Event: Public Intellectuals, Democracy and Liberalism in the History of Latin America

Abstract

Domingo F. Sarmiento, as is well known, fitted uncomfortably in the intellectual milieu of his time. Within the so called Argentine Generation of 1837, he was an outsider and always felt so. He lacked the family background, social networks, academic diplomas, and intellectual recognition other members enjoyed. However, precisely because of all these limitations, he fashioned himself and his ideas in an entirely singular way. His connection to Rousseau has been often mentioned in terms of his indebtedness to the thought of the author of The Social Contract. However, in this paper I would like to explore the way in which the two of them, very different in many senses, nonetheless represented a new type of public intellectual, one that turned their partial alienation vis-a-vis the intellectual circles into a personal style and set of ideas. Here I will examine how both of them, who lacked a genealogy they could boast or use, privileged the inheritance of values and sentiments over lineage; how both of them, who disapproved of fiction as a childish pastime, embraced the use of fictional devices as a precious tool to appeal directly to the newly created reading public. In this, they –who were both very interested in the power of ideas to transform reality-, also succeeded in disseminating their texts and ideas beyond a restricted audience of intellectual readers. A comparison between Sarmiento and Rousseau will shed new light on this new model of Public Intellectual, so profoundly influential in the making of Latin America.

Author

• Karina Galperin, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella