Oscar Varsavsky

Oscar Varsavsky Go to navigationGo to search Oscar Varsavsky Personal information Birth January 18, 1920 Buenos Aires , Argentina Argentina's flag Death December 17, 1976 Buenos Aires , Argentina Argentina's flag Nationality Argentina Education Educated in Buenos Aires' University View and modify data on Wikidata Professional information Occupation Researcher-teacher, Latin American socio-technological scientist Employer Central University of Venezuela National University of the South View and modify data on Wikidata Notable works Towards a national scientific policy (1972); National projects (1971); Prediction in Social Sciences (1968) [ edit data on Wikidata ] Oscar Varsavsky ( Buenos Aires , Argentina , 18 of January of 1920 , Buenos Aires , 17 of December of 1976 ) was one of the earliest and leading specialists worldwide in the development of mathematical models applied to social sciences, and in his later years he deepened in the study of History and Epistemology . He graduated as a doctor in Chemistry from the School of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires . In this Faculty he would then work successively as a Physicochemistry laboratory assistant, head of practical work in Mathematical Analysis, adjunct professor of Algebra and Topology and full-time professor in the Department of Mathematics. In his youth he was linked to the institutional sphere of Exactas. He participated in numerous efforts and activities, highlighting his work in the commission for the improvement of the teaching of mathematics at the secondary level. Some time before the military coup of General OnganíaHe settled in Venezuela, where he did various jobs. During these years he participated in the university renewal process initiated as a result of the world student movements in 1968, which he felt was a true beginning of transformation for the world. At the end of the 1960s, and once again settled in Argentina, Varsavsky changed his interest as he became more closely related to the social sciences. He then made explicit his questioning of scientific activity and intensified the search for new links between the sciences. Throughout his life he gave mathematics classes, with interruptions, at the Universities of the South, Cuyo and Caracas. Since 1958 he was a member of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). In his last years he deepened the study of history and epistemology. Work and contributions Oscar Varsavsky believed in the need to think about human activities in terms of their contribution to the effective construction of a society whose characteristics would have been previously defined. This definition would require intense prior work aimed at proposing alternatives to the current order of things. Faced with the false technical-economic awareness that such alternatives did not exist, Varsavsky stressed the importance for social groups of the prior vision of their possibilities. Using some ideas from the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn , he deployed a strong critique of the norms that govern the development of science. He believed that the obsession with quantitative methods conceals, in the illusion of freedom of investigation, a mechanism that guarantees the subjection of the scientist to the strategies of capital expansion and the laws of the market. These ideas were his starting point to aspire to a science truly freer from economic constraints. Oscar Varsavsky was of great importance for the country and for Latin America in general. Varsavsky can be defined as a "Latin American" scientist due to the insertion and importance he reached in various countries and institutions, as a consequence of the dissemination strategy that he implemented, which consisted of creating interdisciplinary groups in different parts of Latin America. He stimulated the creativity of the scientist and his national spirit, fostering the studies of the subject that interests each country, eliminating individualistic works with the sole purpose of satisfying the needs and interests of a world elite. That is why he was defined as the father of an "epistemological style" characterized by transparency, participation, and exhaustiveness. To his contributions as a scientist, it should be added that he wrote science fiction stories full of originality. Examples include those published in the famous magazine Más Allá (1953-1957). Some make up his trilogy "The crimes of the IOL": Protonickel, Nictálopes and Nemobius Fasciatus. He contributed in Peru during the government of Juan Velasco Alvarado, in the design of objectives and content of mathematics, for the first seventy years of the twentieth century 1