People don't like thinking of "premodern" people as being intelligent, or even as people. Aristotle is popular in modern times because it lets "modern" people jerk themselves off by going "ha ha look at the ancient Greek cavemen people who were too stupid to invent phones because they think space is made of aether." I'm surprised people give proper credit to all the varied and disparate examples of calculus being developed independently of each other.
g_bacon_is_tasty t1_iuq66nm wrote
Reply to comment by kromem in Does Science Need History? A Conversation with Lorraine Daston by Maxwellsdemon17
People don't like thinking of "premodern" people as being intelligent, or even as people. Aristotle is popular in modern times because it lets "modern" people jerk themselves off by going "ha ha look at the ancient Greek cavemen people who were too stupid to invent phones because they think space is made of aether." I'm surprised people give proper credit to all the varied and disparate examples of calculus being developed independently of each other.