Well that sort of proves my point - Newton was an individual. Yes, he needed the support of a community to reach his full potential, but it wasn't the community that came up with his ideas - it was him.
And for a contrarian example, consider someone like Nietzsche. Probably in the top 5 most influential philosophers of the past ±150 years and yet he wrote most of his books alone while wandering Europe. He also published most of them at his own expense and didn't have much of a readership until near his death, at which point he had gone mad from syphilis. There was no group around him and no community helping him. Yet here we are, deeply influenced by his ideas.