A new kind of aesthetics —the mathematical structure of the aesthetic

Abstract

This paper proposes a new approach to the investigation into aesthetics. Specifically, it argues that it is possible to explain the aesthetic and its underlying dynamic relations with an axiomatic structure (the octahedral axiom-derived category) based on contemporary mathematics (namely category theory), and through this argument suggests the possibility for discussion about the mathematical structure of the aesthetic. If there were a way to describe the structure of the aesthetic with the language of mathematical structures and mathematical axioms—a language completely devoid of arbitrariness—then we would make possible a universal argument about the essential human activity of “the aesthetic”, and we would also gain a new method and viewpoint into the philosophy and meaning of the act of creating a work of art and artistic activities. This paper presents one mathematical structure as a foundation in constructing the science of dynamic aesthetics based on axiomatic functionalism, which is in turn based on a new interdisciplinary investigation into the generative structure of the aesthetic.