This is the last of "Plato's Trio" mini-essays, the others being "The Good" and "The True."

It took me much more time to 'discover' the evolutionary origin of Beauty, having been mislead by the search of an advantageous property, such as the attraction of a better-suited sexual partner. This approach was wrong, since beauty, no matter how it is interpreted at a rational or just instinctive level, offers no general survival value. Witness the fact that most men and women do not correspond to the societal criteria demanded for being qualified as beautiful.

One relatively recent day, I was musing about the word "cosmetics," a cognate of the word "cosmos" (both derived from the Greek root for "order"), as contrasted with the word "chaos." This association was of great importance to me, since I've written on that subject, even taking a cue from the Book of Genesis, and also entering into the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is considered as the Supreme Law of the universe.

And, presto! I 'discovered the origin of THE BEAUTY...
It is not of evolutionary origin, but intrinsic to the Origin, that is, to the Big Bang, reaching its zenith only when humankind was sufficiently evolved to use its mind for developing a concept of Aesthetics.
Not being evolutionary, only man's appreciation of beauty varies and changes with different individuals and societies, therefore affecting variously the individual components of each society.

One of the basic elements of beauty is Symmetry, as exemplified in the bodily aspect. The asymmetrical organs, such as the heart, have risen much scientific interest, for its departure from that principle. Yet already Plato had been taken by the symmetry of the five 'perfect' solids, the simplest being the tetrahedron, a pyramid with three sides and the base. Kepler spoke of the beauty of the planets moving harmoniously; the hexagonal (symmetrical) form of the honeycombs and other natural structures impressed him. He would have been delighted to learn that water molecules are arranged in hexagonal symmetry.

One of the leading theories of the cosmic structure is called "Supersymmetry" ("SUSY"). Most revealing is Dirac's hypothesis of the existence of a particle symmetrical to the electron, with positive charge, which was soon discovered and called 'positron.' As a theoretical physicist, he was calculating electron's characteristics; when he had to use the expression 'square root of 4,' he realized that there are two answers: 2 and -2. Instead of dismissing the 'absurd' second solution, he took it as a reality of symmetry and realized that in an analogical way, there had to be present a particle symmetrical to the electron.
Analogical thinking served Galileo to apply the observation of the four "Galilean' Jupiter's moons to present his heliocentric hypothesis, pioneered by Copernicus.

I have based my own hypothesis of the "Geometrics Limiting Principle," on analogical thinking (Please read INTUITION at:
http://www.oocities.org/~ghitis
In fact, I suggest reading there also the Introduction to THE GAME OF ANALOGIES.

I posit that when there is a natural symmetric pair, a third component must exist. For instance, the e-/p+ pair is known to annihilate mutually, with the liberation of energy. Thus, by dint of analogical thinking, I hypothesize that there is a third state ('neutral') in which the pair is united without destruction: this, I say, is the state present in the nucleus (quarks); the opposite spinning of the e-/p+ pairs cause the gravitational pull.
On similar grounds I also posit that pieces of different numbers of such pairs result from the cyclotronic fracture of protons, constituting many of the unexplained particles observed, light or heavy, negative, positive, or neutral, accordingly.
Notice that only electrons, which surround the atomic nuclei, carry electric energy. The 'positive' pole has no relation to positrons.

The components of THE BEAUTY were successively added, as supernovas created planets, stellar chemistry thus moving into planetary chemistry, until Earth gave way to fully developed inorganic chemistry, later on advancing to organic chemistry, which allowed biochemically organized living organisms to develop according to biological determinants.

The sense of beauty is innate, being afterwards educated. From a very early age, we are 'wired' to be attracted by symmetrical, well proportioned faces. We learn afterwards that biology uses only the left-sided aminoacids and the right-sided sugars. The Latin world 'sinister,' meaning 'left,' has a frightening connotation, while in ancient Hebrew --in which 'left' was equivalent to present 'North'-- the modern word derives from 'hidden.'