In line with my learning from art project, I try to always think of a set of works of art that are helpfully related to content I develop (or delve). This is to get more out of art than we naturally do. And it can help improve one’s understanding. The task is actually quite difficult, because most brains (including mine) do not naturally index art in this way (but I believe one can deliberately build such indexes in our brains).

Here are a few works of art that came to my mind on the topic of my recent blog post, Psychological Hedonism meets Value Pluralism: An Integrative Design-oriented perspective – CogZest.

• Doctor Zhivago,
• Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák) – Wikipedia,
• Jacques Brel – Le prochain amour – YouTube (by Jacques Brel, about falling in love knowing that it will end in tears),
• La quête by Jacques Brel from his Homme de la Mancha musical. (Cf. The Impossible Dream (The Quest) – Wikipedia),
• Pourquoi fait-il toutes ces choses, again from Brel’s Homme de la Mancha (the unlikely female protagonist wondering why the “hero” does what he does, and why he loves her),
• Things They Do (chords & lyrics by David Francey), (wondering why someone would commit suicide) and
• Morgen! by Richard Strauss, lyrics by John Henry Mackay, (Lyrics)

They illustrate a variety of pursuits, involving many different personalities, with various motivators triggered by various circumstances, in different contexts.

Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter what works of art came to your mind on contrasting psychological hedonism and value pluralism.