Is the painting on the left virtually worthless? Is the painting on the right worth tens of millions of dollars?
What value do we place on the paintings themselves, and what value do we place on the captions below them — and why?
For background, see A van Gogh’s Trip From the Attic to the Museum.
In his 1978 movie Manhattan, Woody Allen’s character offers these thoughts on life:
Why is life worth living? That’s a very good question. Well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. Like what? Okay, for me, I would say, Groucho Marx, to name one thing and Willie Mays, and the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and Louie Armstrong’s recording of “Potato Head Blues,” Swedish movies, naturally, “Sentimental Education” by Flaubert, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne, the crabs at Sam Wo’s, Tracy’s face …
This quote often comes to mind when I contemplate art, beauty and the meaning of life. Although it’s an idiosyncratic list, I think it offers a meaningful cross-section of aesthetically significant human experiences. It’s not a definitive statement on beauty and life, but many of the items resonate within me as being, in one way or another, truly important. So, here they are, for you enjoyment and contemplation: (more…)
One of the standard arguments for the existence of God is the Moral Argument. It can be formulated like this:
There’s a similar argument for God that can be made in terms of objective beauty, or objective aesthetic values. Such an argument runs thusly: