Now beauty [κάλλος], as we said, shone bright among those visions, and in this world below we apprehend it through the clearest of our senses, clear and resplendent. For sight is the keenest of the physical senses, though wisdom [φρόνησις] is not seen by it -- how passionate would be our desire for it, if such a clear image of wisdom were granted as would come through sight -- and the same is true of the other beloved objects; but beauty alone has this privilege [μοῖρα], to be most clearly seen and most lovely of them all.
Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades.
The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.
Ironically, the physicist and philosopher of science Sabine Hossenfelder now says that mathematical physics is too impressed with the beauty of mathematical ideas, particularly string theory. IN fact her book on it is titled Lost in Math - How Beauty Leads Physics Astray.
Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. — Wayfarer
it looks like beauty doesn't love truth very much.Since these two are so completely and utterly different — Garth
... fictions, fantasies, idols, art(ifact)s ...What are man's truths ultimately?
Merely his irrefutable errors. — Nietzsche
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