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Thread: What makes a photograph "good"?

  1. #21
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by h2oman View Post
    With apologies in advance to any who find this annoying, I'll keep hammering on Brian's assertion, which ended with the qualifier "for me." The qualifier applied to the statement "If I like it, then it is good," which is a conditional statement, "if p, then q." So what, then, of the related statements, still with the qualifier "to me?"

    the converse "if q, then p," or "if it is good, then I like it"

    the contrapositive "if not q, then not p," or "if it is not good, then I do not like it"

    the inverse "if not p, then not q," or "if I do not like it, then it is not good"

    Merg, Brian and I have all volunteered that the converse does not hold for us.
    Oh, dear. Someone studied a bit of logic. Next you'll be working in Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem.

    How about a bit of Aristotle: Something is good if it contributes to personal and community thriving.

    Or some Plato: It's good if it contributes to your mind being well-ordered and healthy.

    Diogenes: It's good, if it's natural. If it's conventional, it's rubbish.

    Gorgias: It's good if it helps you get what you want.

    Pythagoras: It's good if it contributes to balance and contributes to the realization of the underlying mathematically described nature of the cosmos.

    Epicurus: It's good if it gives you pleasure but not pain.

    Thales: It's good if it's made of water....wait, everything is made of water!

    Parmenides: It's good if it gives insight into the unchanging and undifferentiated nature of reality.

    Stoics: It's good if it leads to mental calmness.

    Adam Smith: it's good if it contributes to your being worthy of love.

    Marx: it's good if it contributes to dialectical development of economic systems.

    Mill: It's good if it leads or contributes to the greatest net happiness.

    G. E. Moore: It's good if it contains goodness, which is a basic, undefinable aspect of reality.

    Sartre: It's good if it's an authentic expression of what you choose.

    Steven Pinker: It's good if it makes your life better.

    And many more...
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  2. #22

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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peter De Smidt View Post
    And many more...
    Elon Musk: It's good if it's fun, exciting, and makes me rich.
    Jeff Bezos: It's good if it's fun, exciting and keeps me richer than Elon.

  3. #23

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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    You forgot Peter De Smidt: It's good if...

    I don't care about those dead guys, what do YOU think?

    I didn't study logic, but occasionally had to resort to proof by contrapositive, when I couldn't go direct! And I wouldn't want to prove the incompleteness theorem, because then all the other stuff I proved (well, many generations of other graduate students had also proved all those things before me) would go down like a house of cards!

  4. #24

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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    I was actually hoping for (but not expecting) something concrete from this thread, and all I have so far is "boobies."

  5. #25
    Eric Woodbury
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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    ANOTHER good photograph.

  6. #26

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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by h2oman View Post
    I was actually hoping for (but not expecting) something concrete from this thread, and all I have so far is "boobies."
    In all honesty… beyond that it’s all philosophy and logic.

  7. #27
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by h2oman View Post

    I don't care about those dead guys, ....
    Steven Pinker's not dead!
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  8. #28
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by h2oman View Post
    I was actually hoping for (but not expecting) something concrete from this thread, and all I have so far is "boobies."
    Diogenes would ask, "Why isn't that enough?"

    A little longer answer. Why we are the way we are has either supernatural or natural answers. I'll leave the supernatural to others. If the answers are natural, then evolution tells us why we are the way we are. Either a trait was useful in a particular environment for our ancestors, and so it was selected for, or it's due to offspring variation. Our aesthetic sense is no different. Things aren't beautiful or sweet in themselves. It's our minds that make them so. See Daniel Dennett's talk here if interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzN-uIVkfjg Our sense of beauty likely came from mating choices, just as a peacocks' tail is due to peahens' choice of mates. It also might be due to food that was healthy, and environments that were safe.....and the mechanisms that developed in these situations where latter applied to other things.

    Feelings, by the way, are nothing more than predictions: https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_feldm...n_creates_them
    Last edited by Peter De Smidt; 9-Aug-2021 at 19:43.
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

  9. #29
    (Shrek)
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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peter De Smidt View Post

    And many more...
    How about Kant: If it is not good, I have wasted years of my life and many thousands of dollars on a hobby I suck at. Therefore the photo is good.

  10. #30

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    Re: What makes a photograph "good"?

    When someone else tells you it's good??? ;-0

    Steve K

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