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History of Science and Mathematics

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    $\begingroup$ Frege plagiarized the Stoics philpapers.org/archive/BOBFPT.pdf) is a recent case about which a non-expert could like to hear expert arguments and opinions... $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ There is a story that Newton's "standing on the shoulders of giants" was a dig at Hooke, who was reportedly relatively short. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ @Henry: there is this same story from Hooke's point of view: "If I did not see so far as some others, this was because giants stood on my shoulders". $\endgroup$ Commented 13 hours ago
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    $\begingroup$ I disagree that the word "plagiarism" is out of place. Cantor took Dedekind's proof of the countability of the algebraic numbers almost verbatim from the letter and didn't source it. It was also the (nominally) main theorem of the paper. The other proof was also streamlined by Dedekind, and Cantor again took it without credit. That's plagiarism. What is out of place is saying that Cantor "stole" the concept of infinity from Dedekind. $\endgroup$ Commented 10 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ For what it's worth, Quanta probably did not deserve all your respect up until this point either. Maybe their coverage of mathematics history has been faultless so far, but there have been some eyebrow-raising hype articles relating to, e.g., quantum computing and string theory, and doubling-down after publication. $\endgroup$ Commented 7 hours ago