Euler's lute and Edwards' oud

摘要

In a piece published in 1981, H. M. Edwards touts the benefits of reading themasters. A quarter-century later, Edwards takes seriously his own advice bypublishing an encomium on Euler's Institutiones (1755). While we agree withEdwards that we shall all do well by studying the masters, we argue that toderive the full benefit, one must read historically important texts withoutinterposing a lens formed by one's own mathematical accomplishments. We show,in particular, that Edwards misses much of the style and substance of Euler'sInstitutiones by reading the text through a constructivist lens.