• Steve
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    7 months ago

    That depends on what you mean by “worth”.
    Paintings and sculptures aren’t really “worth anything” in pretty much the same way.
    What’s a movie “worth” for that matter?

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Paintings and sculptures are individual artistic creations. You might be able to say such things about mass produced replicas, but not art itself.

      • Steve
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        7 months ago

        Art itself could be considered the idea. The individual physical creation would be merely an expression of that idea. Does mass production dilute that idea or it’s “worth”?

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It disseminates the idea and dilutes the worth, because worth is tied to scarcity.

          • Steve
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            7 months ago

            And I think that’s our primary point of disagreement. I don’t care how scarce something is.

            In fact not quite 30min ago, I flushed something unique down the toilet because it was worthless to me. While the toilet I flush it with, is worth quite a lot to me, even though it’s very common and and found everywhere in my country. In fact if it was scarce, even unique, it might be entirely worthless.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              You can disagree all you want but value is absolutely and always associated with (at least perceived) scarcity.

              • Steve
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                7 months ago

                Only sometimes. Not always. The value of many things comes with commonality. Social media for example would be worthless for only one person.

              • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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                7 months ago

                I think this is a matter of terminology.

                You’re talking monetary value/worth only. They’re talking about value and worth in a broader sense.

                • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  Even there, something gets MORE worth when it’s used again, even to sit on a shelf and look pretty.

                  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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                    7 months ago

                    That, my homie, is a matter of perspective. Things can have value/worth without that as well. It ascribes value a weight based on usage rather than money. Which is fine! Value is relatively relative ;)

                    Things can have value/worth without a connection to a human’s perception of that thing. It gets pretty nebulous and woo-woo, but the principle is valid.

                    I guess what I’m also saying is that utilitarian thinking isn’t the only way to approach the discussion. But I’m also saying that utilitarian thinking is a valid part of the discussion. But when it comes down to utilitarian versus non utilitarian, it isn’t a discussion, it’s an argument about being right. Which is what the thread turned into towards the end.