Leisure: The Basis of Culture
One of the most important philosophy titles published in the twentieth century, Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture is more significant, even more crucial, today than it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago. This edition also includes his work The Philosophical Act. Leisure is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world. Pieper shows that the Greeks and medieval Europeans, understood the great value...
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One of the most important philosophy titles published in the twentieth century,Joseph Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture is more significant, even more crucial than it was when it first appeared fifty years ago. Pieper shows that Greeks understood and valued leisure, as did the medieval Europeans. He points out that religion can be born only in leisureCa leisure that allows time for the contemplation of the nature of God. Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture. He maintains that our bourgeois world of total labor has vanquished leisure, and issues a startling warning: Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our cultureCand ourselves. These astonishing essays contradict all our pragmatic and puritanical conceptions about labor and leisure; Joseph Pieper demolishes the twentieth-century cult of Awork as he predicts its destructive consequences. A[Pieper] has subjects involved in everyone's life; he has theses that are so counter to prevailing trends as to be sensational; and he has a style that is memorably clear and direct.—Chicago Tribune AThese two short essays by a contemporary German philosopher go a long way towards a lucid explanation of the present crisis in civilisationY. The first essayY should be read by anyoneCand young people in particularCanxious to come to some conclusions about the nature of society.—The Spectator (London) APieper's message for us is plainY. The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mindCall this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave societyY. Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable.—New York Times Book Review New York Times Book Review Pieper's message for us is plain... The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mind - all this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave society... Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable.
Foreword James V. Schall 9Author's Preface to the English Edition 15Leisure The Basis Of CultureI Leisure the foundation of Western culture"We are 'unleisurely' in order to have leisure"AristotleThe claims of the world of "total work" 19II "Intellectual work" and "intellectual worker"Discursive thought and "intellectual contemplation"Kant and the RomanticsRatio and Intellectus: the medieval conception of knowledgeContemplation "superhuman"Knowledge as "work": the two aspects of this conception"Unqualified activity"Effort and effortlessnessHard work is what is goodAntisthenesThomas Aquinas: "it is not the difficulty which is the decisive point"Contemplation and playWillingness to sufferFirst comes the "gift""Intellectual work" as a social function 25III Sloth (acedia) and the incapacity to leisureLeisure as non-activityLeisure as a festive attitudeLeisure and rest from workLeisure above all functionsLeisure as a means of rising above the "really human" 43IV The influence of the ideal of leisure- "Humanism" an inadequate position?Excursus on "proletariat"The philosopher and the common working manMan "fettered to work"Lack of property, State compulsion and inner impoverishment as the causes"Proletarians" not limited to the proletariatartes liberates and artes servilesProudhon on Sunday"Deprole-tarianization" and the opening of the realm of leisure 53V Leisure made inwardly possible through Divine WorshipFeast and worshipUnused time and spaceThe world of work and the Feast dayLeisure divorced from worship becomes idlenessThe significance of Divine worship65The Philosophical ActI By philosophizing we step beyond the world of work"Common need" and "common good"The "world of total work" rests on the identification of "common need" and "common good"The situation of philosophy in the "world of work"The relation between religious acts and aesthetic acts, between philosophizing and the experience of love or deathSham forms of these basic attitudes in lifeThe everlasting misunderstanding between philosophy and the everyday world of work: The Thracian Maid and a figure in the Platonic dialogues (Appollodorus). The positive aspect of their incommensurability: the freedom of philosophy (its unusableness)The knowledge of the functionary and the knowledge of a gentlemanThe sciences "unfiree"Philosophy free, its theoretical characterThe presupposition of theoriaThe belief that man's real wealth consists neither in the satisfaction of his needs, nor in the control of nature 77II Where does the philosophical act carry us when it transcends the "world of work"?The world as a field of relationsThe hierarchie gradations of the worldThe notion "surroundings" (v. Uexküll)Spirit as the power of apprehending the world; spirit exists within the whole of realityBeing as related to spirit: the truth of thingsThe gradations of inwardness: the relation to the totality of being and personalityThe world of spirit: the totality of things and the essence of thingsMan not a pure spiritMan's field of relations: both world and environment, both togetherPhilosophizing as a step beyond our environment vis-à-vis de VuniversThe step as "superhuman"The distinguishing mark, of a philosophical question: it is on the horizon of the whole of reality 93III "World" and "environment" are not watertight compartmentsThe world preserved in the environment: wonderThe "un-bourgeois" character of philosophical wonderThe danger of being uprooted from the workaday worldWonder as "the confusion of thought at itself"The inner direction of wonder not aimed at doubt but at the sense of mysteryWonder as the moving principle of philosophyThe structure of hope and the structure of wonder similarThe special sciences cease "wondering", philosophy does notPhilosophia as the loving search for wisdom as it is possessed by GodThe inner impossibility of a "closed" system of philosophyPhilosophizing as the completion of man's existence 109IV Philosophy always preceded by a traditional interpretation of the worldPlato, Aristotle and the pre-socratics in their relation to traditionPlato tradition as revelationIts freedom vis-à-vis theology one of the^ marks of Plato's philosophizingChristian theology the form of pre-philosophic tradition to be found in the WestThe vitality of philosophy dependent upon its relation to theologyIs a non-Christian philosophy possible?Christian philosophy not characterized by its ready answers but by its pro-founder apprehension of the mysterious nature of the worldChristian philosophy not intellectually simplerThe joy which goes with not being able to understand utterly and completelyChristianity not, in the first place, doctrine but realityThe real soil of Christian philosophizingthe living experience of Christianity as reality 127
\ Chicago TribunePieper has subjects involved in everyone's life; he has theses that are so counter to the prevailing trends as to be sensational; and he has a style that is memorably clear and direct.\ \ \ \ \ New York Times Book ReviewPieper's message for us is plain... The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mind - all this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave society... Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable.\ \
