On the need to rewrite the history of Greek mathematics

Abstract

The previous string of quotations is (most certainly) not illustrative of the ways in which the history of mathematics has traditionally been written. The authors of the quotations themselves have not always practiced what they occa|sionally preached.4 Indeed, the discipline is exceedingly rich in works written (as it were) as a living illustration of P. W. Bridgman’s exhortation: ...the past has meaning only in terms of the present. The impartial recovery of the past, uncontaminated by the influence of the present, is held up as a professional ideal, and a criterion of technical competence is the degree to which this ideal is reached. This ideal is, I believe, impossible of attainment, and cannot even be formulated without involvement with meaningless verbalisms.5