> nobody was funding the people that did invent calculus.
replyOf course someone was. Newton and Leibniz weren't living in autarky an some island. They had an income stream that was taken away from somewhere else and given to them so that they could afford working on their pet projects.
The fact that it's not publicly funded doesn't change the fact that there's still resource allocation happening.
I think by that definition every mathematician in the current day is funded, mission accomplished.
replyThey worked other jobs, no? No one paid them specifically to invent calculus or anything of the sort.
reply> They worked other jobs, no?
replyThis is an anachronism, you're projecting modern social organization to an era that worked very differently.