Beyond structural substitution, aesthetic criteria operate rhetorically, reinforcing the authority of theories through language and emphasis. Elegance is celebrated as inherently truthful, as if beauty itself were a mark of correctness. This rhetorical elevation magnifies the structural function of aesthetics, allowing internal coherence and formal virtues to be perceived as epistemic achievement.
Physicists routinely invoke aesthetic language to describe their theories: symmetry is praised, simplicity is lauded, and mathematical neatness is equated with insight. The repeated emphasis creates a feedback loop: the community begins to internalise aesthetic assessment as a reliable indicator of theoretical soundness.
The rhetoric of elegance protects theories from critique. A theory may be untested or empirically inaccessible, yet its elegance is celebrated as evidence of depth, subtlety, or inevitability. The appearance of understanding is maintained even in the absence of instantiation. Critiques that appeal to empirical inadequacy or predictive failure are deflected by appeals to beauty, symmetry, or conceptual economy.
This mechanism is subtle. It does not require deception; practitioners often sincerely value elegance. Yet the effect is structural: aesthetic rhetoric consolidates legitimacy, stabilises research communities, and shields theory from external challenge. It becomes a socially enacted surrogate for empirical engagement, quietly reinforcing authority where classical criteria might fail.
Recognising the rhetorical power of elegance is essential. It reveals that aesthetics in physics is not merely a matter of taste or pedagogical convenience, but a key mechanism by which theoretical authority is sustained, particularly in domains where instantiation is difficult or delayed.
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