05/28/2021
In a conversation with my professor of Eastern philosophy, I once remarked that mathematics is beautiful because it comes closest to truth. Pure mathematics, in its relentless pursuit of the real, willingly abandons the empirical, and therein lies its beauty. This raises an intriguing question: why, in English, is the sequence often rendered Beauty–Goodness–Truth rather than the classical Truth–Goodness–Beauty?
In the empirical realm (形而下學), “truth” is elusive—nothing here can claim absolute authenticity. Thus, the most practical measure of truth is first whether something is beautiful, and second whether it is good. In this sense, beauty becomes a form of wisdom in the Eastern philosophical tradition, for wisdom is beauty in its highest form.
Mathematics, however, dwells in the metaphysical realm (形而上學), where truth stands at the summit, followed by goodness and beauty. My mentor in theoretical physics once observed that mathematics, grounded in immutable laws, is itself law and order; if mathematics were to collapse, so too would the natural sciences and the modern civilization they sustain.
The paradox, then, is that in the empirical world we praise beauty as the highest value, while in the metaphysical realm we exalt truth. Yet, when translated across these realms, the highest metaphysical ideal—truth—becomes indistinguishable from the highest empirical ideal—beauty.
Perhaps this is why, for me, mathematics is beautiful: it unites truth and beauty under the same name. In the blurred boundaries of the empirical world, Truth = Goodness = Beauty. Applied mathematics, which brings the purity of mathematics into contact with the world, and Eastern philosophy, which elevates beauty to wisdom, may thus share a common ground. If, in the post-Corona era, these two extremes can meet—joining rigorous law with harmonious wisdom—we might arrive at a state where beauty is goodness, and goodness is truth.
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