The discovery of Chagas disease is one of the most brilliant and significant in the
history of medicine, particularly, of the Brazilian medicine and science. Carlos Chagas is
exhibited in the literature as a great scientist who discovered a disease that silently
afflicted the backlands of Brazil. From that discovery, the "health look" turns to the most
vulnerable populations in the rural and less developed depths of the country. Little has
been written about the context that led to that breakthrough, and which conditions made
possible such event. Moreover, why that happened in that specific period.
At this end of curse paper, we aimed to know which aspects were paramount for
the discovery of Chagas disease. It is well understood, a priori, that political and economic issues in the First Republic created a favorable context for its discovery. However, which other elements preceded these questions? Among them, we can list the change in the paradigm of scientific thinking that led to the emergence of positivist philosophy, causing shifts in the direction of actions in the scientific field, unveiling a new coping model for situations in areas of education and health. Therefore, the present work tries to analyze a probable relationship between the discovery of Chagas disease and modern scientific thinking, which emerged in the 19th century, and the positivist ideal, established in Brazil from 1840 on. Likewise, this work aims to characterize the context of Carlos Chagas' education and professional career and what paths he took to qualify as the protagonist of this important outcome, namely, the discovery of an unprecedented disease relevant to the public health of the young Brazilian Republic. Consequently, we intended to elucidate two questions: Did the construction of a positivist ethos in the second half of the 19th-century favor the discovery of Chagas disease? Were Carlos Chagas' academic background and professional environment decisive for this discovery of Chagas' disease?