scholarly journals Curators Serving the Public Good

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Martinon
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Private Good ◽  
Universal Principle ◽  
The Public ◽  
Widespread Acceptance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Circle Of Friends ◽  
The Way

This article investigates a principle inscribed at the top of most codes of ethics for curators: they should always “serve the public good.” No self-respecting curator would ever admit to serve “the private good,” that is, the good of the few, whether that of an elite in power or of a circle of friends or allies. The principle of “serving the public good” is inalienable and unquestionable even in situations where it is most open to doubt. However, what exactly is the meaning of this seemingly “true” and on all accounts “universal” principle: “to serve the public good”? To address this question, I look at this principle for the way it is perceived as being both majestic in its impressive widespread acceptance and cloaked in ridicule for being so often disregarded. I will argue—with an example taken from the history of curating—that it is not the meaning attached to the principle that counts, but the respect that it enjoins. I conclude by drawing a few remarks on how the value of the “good” remains, after the principle has been cast aside and the priority of respect is acknowledged, a ghost on the horizon of all curators’ work.

Ethnic trust, minority status, and public goods in post-conflict societies

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332098421
Author(s):  
Sam Whitt
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
The Public ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
History Of

This study considers how ethnic trust and minority status can impact the ability of ethnic groups to pursue cooperative public goods, focusing on groups with a history of conflict and lingering hostility. A public good experiment between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in postwar Kosovo reveals that subjects contribute far more to a mutually beneficial public good when they are part of an experimentally induced coethnic majority. However, when in the minority, subjects not only underinvest, but many actively divest entirely, privatizing the public good. Majority/minority status also has wide-ranging implications for how individuals relate to real-world public goods and the institutions of government that provide them. Compared to majority Albanians, survey data indicate how minority Serbs in Kosovo express greater safety and security concerns, feel more politically, socially, and economically excluded, are more dissatisfied with civil liberties and human rights protections, and are less likely to participate politically or pay taxes to support public goods. Conflict-related victimization and distrust of out-groups are strong predictors of these minority group attitudes and behaviors. This suggests a mechanism for how conflict amplifies out-group distrust, increasing parochial bias in public good commitments, especially among minorities who are wary of exploitation at the hands of an out-group majority. To restore trust, this study finds that institutional trust and intergroup contact are important to bridging ethnic divides that inhibit public good cooperation.

scholarly journals La biblioteca en el papel

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matías Maggio-Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Public Library ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of

El objetivo es analizar cómo el texto fundacional y el reglamento de la Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires interpelaron a los usuarios y cuál fue la reacción del público una vez que la institución abrió sus puertas. Por lo tanto, se rastreó la tensión entre un paradigma bibliotecológico que apelaba al fomento del saber y al bien público como objetivo institucional y las demandas de los usuarios por el horario restringido de la biblioteca. Se analizaron desde la historia de la cultura impresa las representaciones de la lectura y de la sociabilidad letrada al leer la correspondencia entre Bernardino Rivadavia y Luis José de Chorroarín, el reglamento de la Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires y los periódicos porteños. Se concluyó que la negativa en ampliar el horario de atención al público conspiró con el acceso a la biblioteca de los empleados. The objective is to analyze how the founding text and regulations of the Buenos Aires Public Library challenged users and what the public's reaction was once the institution opened its doors. Therefore, we traced the tension between a library paradigm that appealed to the promotion of knowledge and the public good as an institutional objective and the demands of users due to the restricted library hours. From the history of printed culture, the representations of reading and the sociability of the reader when reading the correspondence between Bernardino Rivadavia and Luis José de Chorroarín, the regulations of the Buenos Aires Public Library and the Buenos Aires newspapers were analyzed. It was concluded that the refusal to extend the opening hours to the public conspired with the access to the library of the employees. A fundação da Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires em 1810, pelo Primeiro Conselho de Governo, foi um marco no panorama cultural da cidade. A promoção do conhecimento esclarecido em busca do "bem público" e da "felicidade dos povos" foi um ponto crucial na cultura colonial tardia em Buenos Aires. Os leitores enviaram livros de redação como uma doação à Biblioteca, mas nem todos puderam acessá-los. A regulamentação de 1812 foi o surgimento de uma idéia da biblioteca e das práticas culturais a ela ligadas. O objetivo do artigo é investigar, a partir da análise comparativa dos regulamentos da biblioteca, a configuração da biblioteca pública durante o processo revolucionário. O leitor presente no regulamento, ao qual foi concedido acesso, não representava os moradores da cidade, devido ao horário de funcionamento restrito ao público.

scholarly journals Brutus' Ultimum dilemma or Is there a moral justification for killing Caesar?

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 517-534
Author(s):  
Evgenij Derzhivitskij ◽  
Vadim Perov ◽  
Andrey Polozhentsev
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Public Utility ◽  
Moral Justification ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
Political Works ◽  
The Way

The article examines how to apply moral and philosophical reflection in the commission of a crime. An action is the result of solving an equation with many variables. This is overcoming legal, moral, philosophical, and emotional contradictions. However, modern legal and ethical thought closes the way for understanding its causes and motives. As an example, we examine the conspiracy and murder of Caesar in Rome in 44 BC. The article reveals objective differences in the understanding of morality in antiquity and in modern ethical science. Here we analyze the philosophical and ethical grounds that will help solve this dilemma. First of all, we considered the philosophical and political works and letters of Cicero. His reasoning about the duties of a citizen might have influenced Brutus' decision to participate in the conspiracy against Caesar and accept the moral choice as his fate. Brutus did not act as a murderer, but as an exponent of public purpose and public utility, for whom the purpose of the act was the public good, incompatible with tyranny.

Health as a Global Public Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Illingworth ◽  
Wendy E. Parmet
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Private Good ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Eradication

Contrary to the standard view that health is a private good, health should be viewed as a public good: its benefits are nonexcludable and nonrivalrous. Health should, in fact, be understood as a global public good, in light of globalization. Chapter 6 illustrates this analysis with reference to the global eradication of smallpox. Understanding health as a global public good, rather than as a private good, has implications for a nation’s moral obligations to newcomers and the health policy that its government crafts: one person’s health can adversely affect another’s health, and good health can benefit many. Given the public good dimensions of health, failure to help newcomers in need of care may not only be counterproductive because it puts the health of all at risk, it may also violate basic principles of fairness, reciprocity and justice.

Veronicas and Artists

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Religious Images ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way ◽  
Contemporary Artists

Chapter One deals with several central issues with regard to understanding the role of religious motifs in contemporary art. Besides being a repetition of imagery from the past, religious motifs embedded in contemporary artworks become a means to problematise not only the way different periods in the history of art are delimited, but larger and seemingly more rigid distinctions as those between art and non-art images. Early religious images differ significantly from art images. The two types are regulated according to different sets of rules related to the conditions of their production, display, appreciation and the way images are invested with the status of being true or authentic instances of art or sacred images. Chapter One provides a discussion of the important motif of the image not made by an artist’s hand, or acheiropoietos, and its survival and transformation, including its traces in contemporary image-making practices. All images are the result of human making; they are fictions. The way the conditions of these fictions are negotiated, or the way the role of the maker is brought to visibility, or concealed, is a defining feature of the specific regime of representation. While the cult image concealed its maker in order to maintain its public significance, and the later art image celebrated the artist as a re-inventor of the old image, contemporary artists cite religious images in order to reflect on the very procedures that produce the public significance and status of images.

Harrington’s Republicanism

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-80
Author(s):  
Rachel Hammersley
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Publishing History ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Commonwealth Government ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Agrarian Law

Chapter 4 focuses on the nature of Harrington’s republicanism and the key features of his ‘equal commonwealth’. It begins by examining the complex publishing history of Oceana and the political and intellectual context in which that work was written. It then traces Harrington’s commitment to key features of commonwealth government: his use of republican models ancient and modern, his adoption of the neo-Roman understanding of liberty and his conflict with Thomas Hobbes on this issue, and his commitment to government in accordance with reason and the public good. Harrington’s understanding of, and emphasis on, the concepts of empire and authority are then explored. Finally, the central features of his equal commonwealth are set out: the agrarian law to ensure equality at the foundation, and then a bicameral legislature, rotation of office, and the Venetian ballot to secure equality and prevent corruption in the superstructure.

A Pareto Approach to Aligning Public and Private Objectives in Vehicle Design

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Frischknecht ◽  
Panos Papalambros
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Pareto Frontier ◽  
Private Good ◽  
Vehicle Design ◽  
Relative Level ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Vehicle Production ◽  
The Government

The quest for producing vehicles friendlier to the environment is often impeded by the fact that a producer private good objective, such as maximum profit, competes with the public good objective of minimizing impact on the environment. Contrary to commercial claims, there may be no defined decision maker in the vehicle production and consumption process who takes ownership of the public good objective, except perhaps the government. One way ecofriendly products could become more successful in the marketplace is if public and private good objectives become more aligned to each other. This paper introduces three metrics for comparing Pareto curves in bi-objective problems in terms of relative level of objective competition. The paper also presents a quantitative way of studying an individual firm’s trade-off between profit and fuel consumption for automotive products, currently undergoing an historic evolution in their design. We show how changes in technology, preferences, competition, and regulatory scenarios lead to Pareto frontier changes, possibly eliminating it altogether.

Der Preis der Gesundheit

1999 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Wolfram Stierle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Finance ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Private Good ◽  
The Public ◽  
Finance Theory

Abstract Plea for the cooperation with the public finance theory in the attempt, to find ethically and economically consistent solutions for the problems concerning public health. Can health be regarded as a private good, in which sense is health a public good and what about the analysis of the influence taken by the interest groups involved?

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