Beautiful Physics: Re-vision of Aesthetic Features of Science Through the Literature Review

Abstract

This study intends to reveal the aesthetic features of physics through the literature review and to give some implications for teaching the beauty of physics. Among the papers published in the internationally prominent journals, indexed in SCI, SSCI, and A&HCI, this study selects a total of 88 articles dealing with aesthetics of physics, and categorizes the aesthetics of physics into intrinsic and extrinsic representation of the aesthetics. As a result, simplicity, symmetry, harmony, and unity, centering on mathematical formalism, are found as the intrinsic aspects of aesthetics, whereas elegance, wonder and sublimity are mentioned as the extrinsic aspects of the aesthetics, which were evoked from the intrinsic aesthetics above. In terms of ontological and epistemological nature of aesthetics, modern physics does not give a clear answer about the simplicity of nature due to the indeterminacy, and the aesthetic judgment is linked to both intrinsic nature of an object and extrinsic sense of human mind, and finally aesthetic evaluation is determined by empirical worth of aesthetics and shared meaning of aesthetic attitude. Thus, this study gives some implications for the use of visual image in physics and teaching aesthetics of physics.