MATHEMATICAL BEAUTY: THE IDEAL ESTABLISHED BY NUMBERS

Abstract

Beauty is an indispensable expression of taste in human life therefore it has been one of the most controversial issues since ancient times. In this discussion area, which provides a great acceleration due to the relative nature of beauty, it’s positioning in the mathematical sense and being a numerical data constituting an important part of Greek aesthetics expresses the subject that is aimed in this study to be taken into consideration. In other words, within the framework of this study, the foundations of the idea of mathematical beauty, which is contrary to the fact that beauty is a description of an individual judgment and the idea of art which is dominated by normativity have been examined.
In this understanding of beauty, which is basically based on the harmony of the parts that make up the whole, a determination based on numerical data is prioritized and because of their key roles in the definition of mathematical beauty some expressions are included such as harmony, measure, coherence, ratio, proportion, symmetry, rhythm. Within the scope of the study, these concepts were followed processively, and the mathematical beauty's point which is reached today's perception is problematized.