Mathematical beauty

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Mathematical beauty is a type of aesthetic value that is experienced in doing or contemplating mathematics. The testimonies of mathematicians indicate that various aspects of mathematics—including results, formulae, proofs and theories—can trigger subjective responses similar to the beauty of art, music, or nature. The pleasure in this experience can serve as a motivation for doing mathematics, and some mathematicians, such as G.H. Hardy, have characterized mathematics as an art form that seeks beauty. Beauty in mathematics has been subject to examination by mathematicians themselves and by philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists. Understanding beauty in general can be difficult because it is a subjective response to sense-experience but is perceived as a property of an external object, and because it may be shaped by cultural influence or personal experience. Mathematical beauty presents additional problems, since the aesthetic response is evoked by abstract ideas which can...

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