From a letter from Beethoven to Franz Wegeler in Bonn, June 29, 1801: “You want to know something about my present situation. Well, on the whole it is not at all bad … My compositions bring me in a good deal; and I may say that I am offered more commissions than it is possible […]
Artist as entrepreneur versus patronage — Beethoven and Mozart Read More »
Mao Zedong, in keeping with Marxism, argued this about the nature and purpose of art: “In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that
Art and morality, Mao and Warhol Read More »
My article, co-written with María Marty, was published in PanAm Post: The opening: “Pope Francis has given us several glimpses of his position on liberalism. His are criticisms are direct and sometimes crude. And while the Pontiff got some points sort-of right, his message revealed mostly a lack of knowledge—or an intentional denial—of the principled
The Pope’s Four Big Mistakes About Libertarianism — article published Read More »
Tara Smith has a very good article reinvigorating and extending the philosophical arguments for religious freedom: “What Good is Religious Freedom? Locke, Rand, and the Non-Religious Case for Respecting It” (Arkansas Law Review 69:4). Along the way she discusses the arguments and counter-arguments of John Locke, Brian Leiter, Jeremy Waldron, Ayn Rand, and others. Direct
What Good is Religious Freedom? Tara Smith article in Arkansas Law Review Read More »
I’m enjoying Bartley Madden’s Value Creation Thinking. Madden has much real-world experience in business from his years as a managing director at Credit Suisee HOLT. He’s also read deeply into the ethics and economics literature. We all know the complaints about the business world — corporations enjoy low public trust, “capitalism” is a dirty word
Bartley Madden’s *Value Creation Thinking* Read More »
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even to every Bachelor of Arts, That all sin is divided into two parts. One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important, And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant, And the other kind
“Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man,” Ogden Nash Read More »
This week in my Ethics course we are looking at two classic arguments about the penalty of death, both from U.S. Supreme Court cases: Justice Brennan, excerpt from Furman v. Georgia 408 U. S. 238 (1972), and Justice Stewart, excerpt from Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Here’s my chart outlining the criteria and arguments used by
Capital Punishment: Brennan versus Stewart Read More »
One explanation for National Socialism appeals to psychological explanations. Hitler, for example, was an art-school reject and, the argument runs, that trauma led to resentment, which is a major part of why he became a Nazi. I’m skeptical of that explanation (as I argued here) — mostly because there are thousands of art-school rejects who
Two art school rejects — Hitler and Rodin Read More »
I wrote this piece 15 years ago — my explanation of how two lines of development of modern art culminated in postmodernism. (Translations via here into German, Spanish, Korean, and Portuguese). Now I feel the need to write a follow-up: Why Art is Still Ugly. Related: * Taking Modern Artists at Their Word. September 2014.
Why Is Art *Still* Ugly? Read More »
[A discussion post.] President Trump’s now-serious proposal to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities has elicited the first round of responses ranging from Philistine! to It’s about time! Both agencies were created in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson, who said at the time: “it is necessary and
Trump’s Call to Eliminate Government Art Funding Read More »