The mathematics of the past: distinguishing its history from our heritage (Q1877688): Difference between revisions

This is a methodological and philosophical paper about the problem how to conceive history, particularly of mathematics, within the process of the development of and the reflection about scientific theories. The author stresses the importance, and independence, of the strongly historical approaches as well as the reflections about the past from the modern point of view of a theory, the ``heritage'' point of view as he calls it. He explains both viewpoints by nice examples, and points to the danger to confuse them. And he argues for the metatheoretical character of both of these points of view, which makes them quite similar to philosophical considerations, and he explains their hierarchical iterability.