>>11154588>Can someone explain why Gauss is often considered so remarkable? Just because he is considered remarkable, doesn't actually make him remarkable.
The problem with Gauss and one that he shares with von Neumann is that their perception by other (modern) mathematicians is inflated and exaggerated especially in terms of their ascribed intellectual powers. In case of Gauss, this is mostly due to two things: Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (his number theory book he allegedly written by him when he wasn't even 20 years old) and his proof of the fundamental theorem of Algebra. Now, in the case of the first one, a lot of the content has simply been copied from other (unpublished) number theory books. One case being the book above number theory made by Legendre in which case there was an actual dispute over the authenticity of Gauss's work since most of what Gauss claimed to have discovered himself was already treated two years earlier in Legendre's book.
The second thing, his proof of the fundamental theory of Algebra may deserve more merit. Then again, there already existed tons of different attempts and proposed solutions to this problem which despite being correct only lacked in actual rigour.
