Comment by empath75
4 hours ago
It is wild to me how much stock mathematicians put into the social aspects of math. The whole social framework you are describing _did not exist_ for almost the entire history of math. It might very well be seen as a historical anomaly, like renaissance mathematicians challenging each other to solve cubic equations.
What do you mean by "the social aspects of math" here? Even some of the earliest known mathematical texts (like the Rhind Papyrus) contain evidence of a social aspect of math. And certainly mathematical discussions occurred among the ancient Greeks. People have been exchanging mathematical ideas for millennia. If you mean to say that the current academic organization of mathematics is a recent phenomenon, that's certainly true. But pretty much all the math history we know has been people communicating with each other, evaluating each other's ideas and developing them further. Given this, I understand why people are worried if the field should suddenly take a non-social form.
Euclidean geometric proofs would often be performed outside in public places.