Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals
journal contribution
posted on 2015-04-10, 10:46 authored by Matthew InglisMatthew Inglis, Andrew AberdeinWhat do mathematicians mean when they use terms such as 'deep', 'elegant', and 'beautiful'? By applying empirical methods developed by social psychologists, we demonstrate that mathematicians' appraisals of proofs vary on four dimensions: aesthetics, intricacy, utility, and precision. We pay particular attention to mathematical beauty and show that, contrary to the classical view, beauty and simplicity are almost entirely unrelated in mathematics.
Funding
This work was supported by a Royal Society Worshipful Company of Actuaries Research Fellowship.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Published in
Philosophia MathematicaVolume
23Issue
1Pages
87 - 109Citation
INGLIS, M. and ABERDEIN, A., 2014. Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals. Philosophia Mathematica, 23 (1), pp.87-109Publisher
© Oxford University PressVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2014Notes
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Philosophia Mathematica following peer review. The version of record INGLIS, M. and ABERDEIN, A., 2014. Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals. Philosophia Mathematica, 23 (1), pp. 87 - 109 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/philmat/nku014. This paper is closed access until 26th July 2015.ISSN
0031-8019eISSN
1744-6406Publisher version
Language
- en
