The care that mathematicians have for the aesthetic quality of their discipline is
noteworthy: this gives rise to many mathematicians’ idea that mathematical ac-
tivity and artistic activity are, in some sense, very similar and comparable.
Morris Kline, a mathematician, (and he is but one of many examples that we
could cite) has dedicated several pages of his book Mathematics In Western Cul-
ture [1] to this subject. After recalling that mathematicians have for hundreds of
years accepted what the Greeks maintained, that is, the fact that mathematics is
an art and that mathematical work must satisfy aesthetic requirements, Kline
asks the fundamental question of why many people maintain that the inclusion of
mathematics in the arts is unjustified.
One of the most common objections is that mathematics does not evoke any
emotion. Kline, on the other hand, observes that mathematics provokes undeni-
able feelings of aversion and reaction, and moreover generates great joy in the re-
searchers when they manage to make a precise formulation of their ideas and on
obtaining clever and inspired proofs. The problem lies in the fact that it is only re-
searchers who can experience these emotions and no-one else. “Just like in the
arts, each particular of the final work is not discovered, but composed. Of course
the creative process must produce a work that has design, harmony and beauty.
These qualities too are present in mathematical creations.”
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