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20444
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If paintings could be perfectly duplicated, it would be a multiple art form [Currie, by Bacharach]
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Full Idea:
Currie claims that, in principle, all art forms are multiple. A superxerox machine, duplicating a painting molecule by molecule, would show that paintings are singular only contingently.
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From:
report of Gregory Currie (An Ontology of Art [1988]) by Sondra Bacharach - Arthur C. Danto 3
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A reaction:
This strikes me as correct. An original painting would then have the same status as the manuscript of a poem, giving it an authority, and being moving by its personal contact with the artist. But worth far less than current original paintings.
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20239
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Unlike us, the early Greeks thought envy was a good thing, and hope a bad thing [Hesiod, by Nietzsche]
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Full Idea:
Hesiod reckons envy among the effects of the good and benevolent Eris, and there was nothing offensive in according envy to the gods. ...Likewise the Greeks were different from us in their evaluation of hope: one felt it to be blind and malicious.
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From:
report of Hesiod (works [c.700 BCE]) by Friedrich Nietzsche - Dawn (Daybreak) 038
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A reaction:
Presumably this would be understandable envy, and unreasonable hope. Ridiculous envy can't possibly be good, and modest and sensible hope can't possibly be bad. I suspect he wants to exaggerate the relativism.
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24073
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Capitalists use their exceptional power to impose their own rules, and make the state their ally [Davies,W]
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Full Idea:
Capitalists exploit their unrivalled control over time and space in order to impose their rules on everyone else. …It triumphed late, only becoming dominant in the 19th century, when it had conscripted the state as its ally.
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From:
William Davies (Review of 'The Price is Wrong' by B.Christophers [2024], 24-04-04)
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A reaction:
This so very much makes sense of the modern world. Nowadays capitalists are so wealthy that the state has largely become their pawn, rather than their ally. Populist leaders are their puppets (and are well rewarded).
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24070
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Economies have material, economic and capitalist layers [Davies,W]
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Full Idea:
Braudel's economic history has three layers. At the bottom is material life of consumption, production, reproduction. Next is economic life of markets, of equals in exchange and competition. Top is capitalism, of opacity, monopoly, power, high profits.
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From:
William Davies (Review of 'The Price is Wrong' by B.Christophers [2024], 24-04-04)
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A reaction:
The point Davies emphasises here is the sharp distinction between the market economy and capitalism.
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24074
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Capitalism must mainly rely either on the labour market, or on the financial markets [Davies,W]
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Full Idea:
According to Marxists, the one market capitalism cannot do without is the labour market, which creates saleable things. Others, influenced by Keynes, emphasise financial markets, where pieces of paper change hands on expectation of their value.
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From:
William Davies (Review of 'The Price is Wrong' by B.Christophers [2024], 24-04-04)
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A reaction:
Modern Britain fits the Keynesian account much better, given its low production, and very active (until recently) London financial market.
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24072
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Capitalism is the anti-market, with opacity, monopolies, powers, exceptional profits and wealth [Davies,W]
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Full Idea:
Braudel sees capitalism as the 'anti-market': a world of opacity, monopoly, concentration of power and wealth, and the exceptional profits that can be achieved only by escaping the norms of 'economic life'.
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From:
William Davies (Review of 'The Price is Wrong' by B.Christophers [2024], 24-04-04)
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A reaction:
Given all the talk about the wonders of the 'free market' from right-wingers, this passage came as a revelation to me. Capitalists all dream of a monopoly, which is precisely the destruction of a market.
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24071
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Markets are transparent, with known prices and activity, and minimal profits [Davies,W]
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Full Idea:
Markets are characterised by transparency. Prices are public, and all relevant activity is visible to everyone. And because of competition, profits are minimal, little more than a 'wage' for the seller.
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From:
William Davies (Review of 'The Price is Wrong' by B.Christophers [2024], 24-04-04)
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A reaction:
This account, from Braudel, is to distinguish markets from capitalism.
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