Nevertheless, I do not agree with the spirit of GP’s point, as one could equally argue that Euler accomplished so much while working from what was, from today’s perspective, an impoverished starting point.
There is a term, ‘Whig history’, which has come to epitomize the attitude of evaluating historical characters in accordance with current standards. It is not a helpful mode of analysis.
Whiggishness is just a massive problem in the history of science and mathematics. There’s so much history that sees it as inevitable as if all the contemporaries of Newton and Leibniz were desperately trying to invent the calculus if only they could figure out how to do it.
Nevertheless, I do not agree with the spirit of GP’s point, as one could equally argue that Euler accomplished so much while working from what was, from today’s perspective, an impoverished starting point.
There is a term, ‘Whig history’, which has come to epitomize the attitude of evaluating historical characters in accordance with current standards. It is not a helpful mode of analysis.