In this article the author complains that the disputes about Mayans and Feijoo in the last third of the 20th Century favors the undervaluation of other contemporary erudite researchers, mainly the ones in favor of Feijoo, at the same time it favors the increase of people with a hint of erudition but perhaps not deserving it.That is why the author thinks that it is advisable to clarify which elements could serve to characterize those who could be named as erudite.And finally, taking Martín Sarmiento as a model, he tries to explain how, why and in which moment the erudite researcher could stop being so and joins the opposite belief, in the case of Sarmiento being nonconformist and utopian.