The Biological Basis of Mathematical Beauty

Zeki, Semir; Chén, Oliver Y.; Romaya, John Paul

doi:10.1101/367185

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…We do so to emphasize the huge range over which β priors may operate. We suggest that beauty itself must be divided into biological beauty (in which we include mathematical beauty) and artefactual beauty (see Zeki, Chén, & Romaya, ; Zeki, Romaya, Benincasa, & Atiyah, ). It is likely that one will find greater agreement among individuals of different cultures and races within the category of biological beauty (including mathematical beauty) than within artefactual beauty.…”

Section: Biological Priors In the Experience Of Beautymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like Vitruvius, Leonardo Da Vinci also believed strongly in copying nature when trying to represent objects and their beauty. In his Vitruvian Man (Canon of Proportions) he worked in the reverse direction from Vitruvius: he adapted mathematical architectural principles, derived from the Vitruvian architectural principles, to produce the perfect human body, which represented for him, in miniature form, the harmonies and proportions present in nature and the Universe, and which he therefore considered to be a “ cosmografia del minor mondo .” Hence, if architectural principles, derived from inherited universal laws of deductive, inductive and analogic logic that are at the basis of mathematics (Zeki et al., , ), are used (consciously or unconsciously) in the creation of perfect human bodies for an artist like Leonardo, these same principles can also act in the reverse direction too—in influencing architectural design. Indeed, one is tempted to read into the principle of pareidolia the desire of the architect to instil, unconsciously, properties derived from more biological percepts such as those of faces or bodies or landscapes into architectural design.…”

Section: The Categorization Of Architectural Beautymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Bayesian‐Laplacian brain

Zeki

Chén

2019

Eur J of Neuroscience

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We outline what we believe could be an improvement in future discussions of the brain acting as a Bayesian‐Laplacian system. We do so by distinguishing between two broad classes of priors on which the brain's inferential systems operate: in one category are biological priors (β priors) and in the other artefactual ones (α priors). We argue that β priors, of which colour categories and faces are good examples, are inherited or acquired very rapidly after birth, are highly or relatively resistant to change through experience, and are common to all humans. The consequence is that the probability of posteriors generated from β priors having universal assent and agreement is high. By contrast, α priors, of which man‐made objects are examples, are acquired post‐natally and modified at various stages throughout post‐natal life; they are much more accommodating of, and hospitable to, new experiences. Consequently, posteriors generated from them are less likely to find universal assent. Taken together, in addition to the more limited capacity of experiment and experience to alter the β priors compared with α priors, another cardinal distinction between the two is that the probability of posteriors generated from β priors having universal agreement is greater than that for α priors. The two categories are distinct at the extremes; there is, however, a middle range where they merge into one another to varying extents, resulting in posteriors that draw upon both categories.

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Section: Biological Priors In the Experience Of Beautymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Categorization Of Architectural Beautymentioning

confidence: 99%