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Similar to inventions and discoveries: is it the "great man/woman" theory, or just an idea whose time has come in the historical process? Some work is simultan
by hyperpallium 9y ago
Similar to inventions and discoveries: is it the "great man/woman" theory, or just an idea whose time has come in the historical process?
Some work is simultaneous, like the discovery of pluto. Several ideas in maths/science are named after independent developers.
OTOH, sometimes classified ideas still haven't been independently invented when declassified many years later.
So, I guess it's the safe, boring answer: some is, some isn't.
- BaronSamedi 9y agoEven when we credit individuals, and rightly so, as we do, for example with Einstein, ideas don't spring ex nihilo into existence. Rather, as I like to think of it, they grow and emerge out of a certain intellectual environment. There is a reason Pythagoras didn't discover the Theory of Relativity. My point was simply that asking "who invented (discovered, created) X" is almost always the wrong question. We have a strong tendency to assign credit (and especially blame)to a person because that is what we are wired to do. One thing science has showed us is that the world isn't that simple.