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This work is part of an investigation that seeks to establish the relationships between psychology and social order, from the perspective of critical history. It is part of a line of inquiry that intends to account for the constitution of the psychological discipline at the end of de 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Argentina in relation to the education field. A series of articles by Victor Mercante (1870-1934), a relevant figure in the local psychopedagogy field, are analyzed. They were published in several newspapers, and are part of the archive “Los papeles de Mercante” (BIBHUMA –FAHCE- UNLP). In them, the author exposed various topics related to his work as a researcher and a teacher. The period 1891-1906 has been considered due to a reason related to the author’s institutional insertion. Between 1890 and 1894 Mercante served as a regent for the Escuela Normal in San Juan and then he settled in Mercedes (Buenos Aires) to direct the Escuela Normal Mixta. He held this position until 1906, when he was summoned by Joaquin V. Gonzalez to organize the Seccion Pedagogica in the UNLP. The articles analyzed in this work belong to a period that was previous to his arrival at this institution. Two central themes which the author refers to in the analyzed articles have been established: the role of education and the permeability of the evolutionary thinking. This work has focused in the second one to propose a deeper analysis regarding what evolutionary conception the author held, what were his theoretical references within this theory, how he established the role of education and what implications it had for the consideration of a relevant theme for the development of the local psychology of the time: the racial issue. Although these aspects of Mercante’s approach have been highlighted by the specialized bibliography, it is interesting to reconstruct the way in which they were presented in the press, which at the end of the 19th century began a significant process of expansion, gradually becoming a political and cultural actor. The reading of the articles reveals a perspective that combines Comtian positivism with an evolutionary thinking that recognizes Darwin’s ideas as a reference but that reflects a Spencerian conception. The consideration of evolution in terms of progress and succession of stages towards perfection as an inescapable process subject to natural laws is recurrent. Regarding the ethnic issue, Mercante made assertions that accounted for a hierarchical conception regarding the differences between indigenous, peasants, and Europeans, in which the former represented the atavistic and the latter the civilized. This is articulated with the way in which Mercante gave an account of the role of inheritance, thematized by the author both in regard to its participation in the constitution of South-Americanism and in what he did to its necessary consideration for the educational action. Within the framework of a teleological conception in which the environment would operate by conditioning the evolution of the organism, education had a determining role to the point of being considered as a case of artificial selection. However, this separates Mercante’s ideas, from the Spencerian conception that the State should not have an interventional role in education. Finally, the evolutionary perspective is also present in the way in which Mercante proposed that education should proceed in methodological terms. The reference here is Ernst Haeckel, to the extent that, according to the author, the educational intervention must follow the guidelines set by the phylogenetic evolution. The analysis carried out allows us to highlight the confluence between, on the one hand, the delimitation of an issue that was relevant for Mercante to be disseminated among a wider audience, and, on the other, the interests of the written press, a field in which, since the end of the 19th century, intellectuals participated scientifically justifying the different state intervention policies. This work shows the encounter between the disseminating interest of Mercante as a conspicuous member of the scientific culture and the role of the written press in spreading a rhetoric that articulated governance and progress.
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