the fact that "the general historical background and or intellectual
maturity [of undergraduates and graduates] are below a reasonable (whatever
the term means) threshold" is not, in my opinion, the main problem in
teaching "History of Mathematics". Reading in the original language can
be necessary for a historian, but critical and oriented translations can
be sufficient for a course.
In addition, I think that "History of Mathematics" could play a role
even in other curriculums, because it is actually the most intriguing part
of the "History of Truth".
The main problem, I think, is in the "epistemological" role of
history in the mathematical disciplines. It is known that the most common
"philosophies" of mathematics (logicism, formalism, platonism, kantism,
intuitionism, etc) assign no role at all to history. Even Husserl is
usually read without any historical dimension. Recent approaches (Lakatos,
"The mathematical Experience", experimental mathematics, etc.) give it a
greater role, but it does not appear largely appreciated in the mathematical
community.
Moreover, often "history of mathematics" (and even ethnomathematics)
appear as a cultural "breach" for the appearance of "relativism" in
mathematics, and a charge of relativism in a Mathematics Department is
worse than a charge of child pornography in a nursery.
Hence "History of Mathematics" can play just a little role in the
first level training, can be a hobby or a recreational activity, but
cannot play any role in high level teaching or foundational research
(remark: usually today the term "foundations of mathematics" means just
"logical foundations of mathematics").
People do not love history and, in order to not learning from it,
they prefer to repeat it.
Spring is arrived, with flowers in the gardens and birds on the
trees, but one hundred kilometers from here now there are bombs and ethnic
cleaning: it is astonishing to discover how often, even European, people
forget that the price for ethnic and religious intolerance is the massacre.
Best wishes
Luigi Borzacchini