Josef Pieper “The Basis of Leisure”



Josef Pieper “The Basis of Leisure”

Introduction

Leisure, the Basis of Culture, by the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, is a slim volume defending leisure's primary importance in human existence. Pieper uncovers the reversal of values which has resulted in the decline of leisure, outlines the possibility of leisure's renewal in a world of total labor, and affirms religious devotion as the heart and justification of all true leisure. The book is brief enough to permit a full treatment of its development.

Analysis

Pieper's work opens with a passage of Plato concerning the institution of Feasts as a means of relieving man from labor and of elevating him to a state of companionship with the Gods. The Basis of Culture, as Pieper derives his main arguments from the Classical and Judeo-Christian traditions. In line with the great Scholastic thinkers, he sees both of these traditions as complementary (Josef Pieper, 1998).

Pieper immediately draws attention to the radical disparity of the traditional and modern views on leisure. In the modern world, as he quotes Max Weber, "one does not work to live; one lives to work". Productive labor, especially that of marketplace is not only a means toward achieving external goals, it is deemed an end in itself.

The ancient world, on the other hand, did not believe that one should live in order to work. To the mind of its great spirits one worked as a means to living, and to live was to have leisure. No less an authority than Aristotle declares: "we are unleisurely in order to have leisure." In his Politics leisure is described as the central point around which all other activity revolves. Along with many others Aristotle held that an existence wholly devoted to practical labor was not, and could not be a fully human life. The great misfortune of the Classical era was that necessity or injustice condemned so many persons to continual servitude. Humanity in its authentic sense was seldom attainable by every human (Josef Pieper, 1998).

Pieper next draws on etymology to uncover what was leisure's unique association with edification. The word School is itself derived from the Greek skole, meaning leisure. Also worthy of note is that artes liberales (liberal arts) and artes serviles (servile work) were from the beginning twin, or more specifically, polar expressions. The sphere of the liberal arts, of education and true culture, was held to be essentially ...