Chapter 6: Aesthetics and Creativity: An Exploration of the Relationships between the Constructs

In the general literature one finds several reports concerning the use of aesthetics as a guide when formulating a scientific theory, or selecting ideas for mathematical proofs.

The first who introduced mathematical beauty as well as simplicity as criteria for a physical theory was Copernicus (Chandrasekhar, 1973, p. 30). Since then, these criteria have continued to play an extremely important role in developing scientific theories (Chandrasekhar, 1973, p. 30; Chandrasekhar, 1979, 1987). This is especially so for truly, creative work that seems to be guided by aesthetic feeling rather than by any explicit intellectual process (Ghiselin, 1952, p. 20). Dirac (1977, p. 136), for example, tells about Schrödinger and himself: