A contribuição de Otto de Alencar Silva para o desenvolvimento da ciência no Brasil

Abstract

In this article we summarize the scientific activities of Otto de Alencar Silva (1874-1912). We do this by emphasizing his valuable contribution to the development of Brazilian science at the time, as well as his solitary efforts to initiate, in 1898, the cycle of rupture in the influence of Comte's positivist ideology on the Brazilian scientific community. Otto de Alencar Silva, a self-hating man of good mathematical culture, exerted a strong scientific influence on colleagues and students at the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro. We will discuss, for the first time, the participation of Otto de Alencar Suilva in the 3rd Latin American Scientific Congress, held from 6-16 August 1905, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In the context of this scientific event, we make a brief analysis of the work, on Mathematics, presented to the congress by Otto. We also make a brief reference to the controversy that existed, during the congress, between Otto de Alencar and the Colombian mathematician Julio Garavito Armero (1865-1920).