Abstract
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.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/eeja.190 | Journal eISSN: 2571-0915
Language: English
Page range: 223 - 243
Published on: Sep 1, 2019
Published by: Helsinki University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
© 2019 Weijia Wang, published by Helsinki University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.