A soul-searching article by exasperated art critic Jerry Saltz. How does the art world live with itself? Great question, and Saltz’s piece is well worth reading. (Thanks to Michael Newberry for the link.)
But: The problem is not “Too much money!” in the art world. The problem is bad ideas working with bad character. Money is only a tool, and it is used only according to the ideas and character of those who have it.
Suppose you’re an art buyer with a billion in the bank. The money will not force you to buy crap. You will buy crap only if you like crap, or have no idea of the difference between crap and worth, or don’t care that it’s crap and only want to be part of the in-crowd.
Or suppose you’re a financially struggling artist: Your desire for money will not make you produce crap. You will produce crap only if you like crap, or don’t know the difference between crap and worth, or have so little integrity that you’ll give up your artistic goals for money.
We want lots of money in the art world. If we think money is the problem, then the solution is to remove the money. But taking a few billion dollars out of the art world will not solve anything. A generation ago when the art market was half its current size, the art world had exactly the same problems. And those were the same problems it had two generations ago when the art market was half again the size.
This article was originally published by Stephen Hicks at stephenhicks.org. We have reprinted it with permission.
Stephen R. C. Hicks is a Senior Scholar for The Atlas Society and Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is also the Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University.
Ele é autor de A Arte da Raciocínio: Leituras para Análise Lógica (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explicando o pós-modernismo: Cepticismo e Socialismo de Rousseau a Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche e os nazis (Ockham's Razor, 2010), Vida empresarial (CEEF, 2016), Liberalismo Pro e Con (Connor Court, 2020), Arte: Moderno, Pós-moderno e Mais Além (com Michael Newberry, 2021) e Oito Filosofias da Educação (2022). Publicou em Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, e The Wall Street Journal. Os seus escritos foram traduzidos em 20 línguas.
Tem sido Professor Visitante de Ética Empresarial na Universidade de Georgetown em Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow no Centro de Filosofia e Política Social em Bowling Green, Ohio, Professor Visitante na Universidade de Kasimir the Great, Polónia, Visiting Fellow no Harris Manchester College da Universidade de Oxford, Inglaterra, e Professor Visitante na Universidade Jagiellonian, Polónia.
Os seus diplomas de licenciatura e mestrado são da Universidade de Guelph, Canadá. O seu doutoramento em Filosofia é da Universidade de Indiana, Bloomington, EUA.
Em 2010, ganhou o Prémio de Excelência em Ensino da sua universidade.
A sua série de podcasts Open College é publicada pela Possibly Correct Productions, Toronto. As suas palestras e entrevistas em vídeo estão online no CEE Video Channel, e o seu website é StephenHicks.org.
Instagram Takeover Questions:
Every week we solicit questions from our 100K followers on Instagram (a social media platform popular with young people. Once a month we feature Stephen Hicks' answers to select questions, transcripts below:
Também vários artigos, seleccionados pelo provável interesse do público objectivista: