Beauty as a measurement of performance: an introduction to the calculus of predispositions

Such seemingly unlike problems as the evaluation of a position in chess, the nonclassical analysis of the behavior of corporations, and the concept of perception of art works elaborated by G. Birkhoff reveal that all of these cases lend themselves to the same formal treatment as the calculus of predispositions. The major thrust of this calculus is to bring out the degree of development by means of the weight function whose value is the degree of beauty. This function involves the material parameters, weighted by unconditional evaluations, and in addition, relational parameters as independent variables with corresponding subjective evaluations. The essence of the aesthetic method and its applications to economics are discussed