Artistic proofs : a Kantian approach to aesthetics in mathematics

• Authors: Weijia Wang
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper explores the nature of mathematical beauty from a Kantian perspective. According to Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, satisfaction in beauty is subjective and non-conceptual, yet a proof can be beautiful even though it relies on concepts. I propose that, much like art creation, the formulation and study of a complex demonstration involves multiple and progressive interactions between the freely original imagination and taste (that is, the aesthetic power of judgement). Such a proof is artistic insofar as it is guided by beauty, namely, the mere feeling about the imagination’s free lawfulness. The beauty in a proof’s process and the perfection in its completion together facilitate a transition from subjective to objective purposiveness, a transition that Kant himself does not address in the third Critique.

Keywords

EN

Kant I.; mathematical beauty; taste; imagination

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 56_(New_Series_12)
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 223-243
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Weijia Wang

• Estetika, redakce, Katedra estetiky, Filozofická fakulta UK, Celená 20, 116 42 Praha 1, Czech Republic