I once read an article about abstract and other modern art that claimed that “beautiful” is not how critics should think about the value of art. It seems to me that it is probably the single most valuable criterion for art and music, although there are others. But what do I know?
And maybe for mathematics also. But until something has real world testability it can’t be called science; pure mathematics is what it is. IMO.
“Beauty is often a telltale sign of truth. Beauty is our guide to the intellectual universe—walking beside us through the uncharted wilderness, pointing us in the right direction, keeping us on track—most of the time.”
——David Gelernter, Yale Univ. explaining why it was so hard for him to give up on Darwinism. He thought Darwin’s theory was beautiful.
You are right about the art and beauty. The art schools are not teaching art but a post-modern worldview, according to Francis Schaeffer. What do you know? The truth about beauty.