Robert Edward Gordon

Contributor

Robert Edward Gordon is an Assistant Research Professor in the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona, where he brings his expertise on matters of culture to a broad range of research interests: Asian art and philosophy, art and economics, freedom and aesthetics, art and poverty, and humanistic geography.

He is a Fellow at UArizona’s Center for Buddhist Studies and is Adjunct Faculty in the Fred Fox School of Music. His writings can be found in The Wall Street Journal, the Athenaeum Review, the Japanese American National Museum Traveling Exhibit, the peer-review journals Philosophies, Space and Culture, and Social Philosophy & Policy, and elsewhere.

Modern Economics and What the Buddha Taught

"At its root, economic self-interest means taking responsibility for one’s own survival and material well-being; it means taking care of oneself so as not to burden society, which lays the…

Modern Economics and What the Buddha Taught

High Art, Commerce, and the Problem of The Beatles

"The Beatles are just the tip of the iceberg. The Beatles are a problem because they open the door for other non-traditional but influential artists and works to be thought…

High Art, Commerce, and the Problem of The Beatles

The Other Side

"The fine arts improve our lives. They uplift the spirit, and can help alleviate the problems intrinsic to material and monetary life. But a desire for beauty and elevation should…

The Other Side

Economics and the Picture Show, Part Two

"Casablanca is a political econo-drama trading in the existential currency of life, death, and love couched in the aesthetic aspirations of art." ~ Robert Edward Gordon

Economics and the Picture Show, Part Two

Economics and the Picture Show

"Economists should pay attention to aesthetics, or the art of economics, which is the art of creating ourselves, both morally and financially. More radically, economists need to stop trying to…

Economics and the Picture Show