Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals

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Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals


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 journal contribution
  posted on 10.04.2015, 10:46 by Matthew Inglis,  Andrew Aberdein

What 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.

Categories
	Uncategorized
	Philosophy


Keywords
untagged


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 Mathematica
Volume
23
Issue
1
Pages
87 - 109
Citation
INGLIS, M. and ABERDEIN, A., 2014. Beauty is not simplicity: an analysis of mathematicians' proof appraisals. Philosophia Mathematica, 23 (1), pp.87-109
Publisher
© Oxford University Press
Version
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
2014
Notes
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.
DOI
	https://doi.org/10.1093/philmat/nku014


ISSN
0031-8019
eISSN
1744-6406
Publisher version
	http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/philmat/nku014


Language
en
Administrator link
	https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/account/articles/9370007



Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Exports
Select an optionRefWorksBibTeXRef. managerEndnoteDataCiteNLMDC






Categories
	Uncategorized
	Philosophy


Keywords
untagged

Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Exports
Select an optionRefWorksBibTeXRef. managerEndnoteDataCiteNLMDC








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