The Necessities of Arts

Since the establishment of the Arts Center at the Chiao-Tung Campus in 2000, millions of dollars have been invested annually, and the Arts Center has been dedicated to providing a rich visual arts feast, exciting music concerts, and other types of performances for faculty and students. After the merger, the Arts Center further expanded its activities, organizing the traditional Jacaranda Creative Award injecting an artistic, musical, and literary atmosphere into the campus life of all members of NYCU.

Indeed, there may be people who feel puzzled: "For a comprehensive university, is it wise financial management to allocate funds to arts, maintaining and enhancing various aspects?" This question may receive different answers from regions with varying economic development stages. In areas where life's main challenge and focus are on "survival," spending on arts may be considered unnecessary luxury and waste. In societies focused on "subsistence," opinions on spending on arts can differ from the former. For societies seeking "happiness," however, the arising of the question may confuse. In such societies, the pursuit of arts and spirit is considered a factor in the equation of happiness, inseparable and indispensable from their overall cultural experience.

The above viewpoints align with the "Hierarchy of Needs" theory proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow (more commonly known as the "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid"). However, based on my extensive research and teaching experience in art history across different civilizations, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid cannot fully explain the state of art development in most regions.

In a specific civilization, the vitality of artistic creation is related to its economic development. A robust economy often supports a more abundant artistic life. A society must cross a certain threshold of subsistence to have the luxury to pursue spiritual or aesthetic goals related to self-realization. However, although humans share similar physiological needs, different civilizations have different standards for the subsistence threshold that triggers self-realization.

The most obvious example is the cave paintings from the Paleolithic era found in the Pyrenees region of France and Spain (between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago). In terms of material life, humans of the Paleolithic era should be less prosperous than those in the Neolithic era, who, in turn, should be less prosperous than those in the Bronze Age. Yet, these Paleolithic artists demonstrated skills and aesthetic achievements that can rival any top artist from any era after the historical period. Similar examples abound.

Therefore, what needs revision in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid is the ordering of needs from the bottom to the top, which is not solely determined by the urgency of material conditions. In simple terms, a society with a per capita GDP of $32,000 can be a society focused on "survival," "subsistence," or "happiness," depending on how its members perceive their own situation. The collective subjective self-image formed by the members of this society determines at which stage its thinking and behavior exist.

Leaving aside how this "society with a per capita GDP of $32,000" is characterized, we, as members of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, collectively determine whether we are a group focused on "survival," "subsistence," or "happiness." We sincerely wish everyone success in their pursuit of benevolence.