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Leisure, the Basis of Culture
Leisure, the Basis of Culture | Josef Pieper
10 posts | 5 read | 6 to read
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 fifty years ago. Pieper shows that the Greeks understood and valued leisure, as did the medieval Europeans. He points out that religion can be born only in leisure -- a 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 culture -- and ourselves. These astonishing essays contradict all our pragmatic and puritanical conceptions about labor and leisure; Josef Pieper demolishes the twentieth-century cult of "work" as he predicts its destructive consequences.
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EadieB
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Day 4 - #Leisure #BeautifulWords

leisure noun
lei·​sure | \ ˈlē-zhər , ˈle-, ˈlā- \
Definition of leisure
1 : freedom provided by the cessation of activities
especially : time free from work or duties
increase of leisure, diminution of hustle are the ends to be sought
— Bertrand Russell
at leisure or at one's leisure
: in one's leisure time : at one's convenience
read the book at her leisure

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I have a lot of #leisure time coming up this week! 💗💗 4y
OriginalCyn620 I love my leisure time! 4y
44 likes3 comments
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EadieB
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TheSpineView Besides the obvious of reading, play the piano, gardening and a couple other odd hobbies I do off and on. 5y
EadieB @TheSpineView Nice! Sounds like you spend your time wisely! 5y
TheSpineView @EadieB Not always! Here I am playing on Litsy when I have some ironing to do. 5y
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Judybskt Reading and gardening 5y
EadieB @TheSpineView Well you are forgiven if you spend your time on Litsy! I always take my wash out as soon as the dryer stops so I don't have much ironing! 5y
EadieB @Judybskt Two relaxing hobbies! I know gardening is hard work sometimes but afterwards the rewards are awesome! (edited) 5y
OriginalCyn620 😊💙📚 5y
58 likes7 comments
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GatheringBooks
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#WinterWonderland Day 19: Apparently, this book was published in #December1963. Ya gotta love Google; She knows everything. Kinda like Janet from A Good Place - or is it the other way around? 😭😂 This looks like a super dense book I will probably not read - unless required for school. #Truth

Cinfhen Google is my smartest friend 🤓 5y
TrishB What did we actually do before google..... 5y
AlaMich Love Janet!!❤️ 5y
67 likes3 comments
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monalyisha
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I tried the Google Arts app. It went well.

😂🙄😂 #same

#artface

Tamra 😂👍🏾 6y
Jen_Reads Half of my results are men and some with beards. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 6y
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GoneFishing

Only those are called liberal or free which are concerned with knowledge; those which are concerned with utilitarian ends... are called servile...

The question is... can man develop to the full as a functionary and a "worker" and nothing else; can a full human existence be contained within an exclusively workaday existence? Stated differently and translated back into our terms: is there such a thing as a liberal art?

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GoneFishing

The inmost significance of the exaggerated value which is set upon hard work appears to be this: man seems to mistrust everything that is effortless; he can only enjoy, with a good conscience, what he has acquired with toil and trouble; he refused to have anything as a gift.

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GoneFishing

Of course the world of work begins to become - threatens to become - our only world, to the exclusion of all else. The demands of the working world grow ever more total, grasping ever more completely the whole of human existence.

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GoneFishing

The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything and everyone; everything is "in him"; nothing can happen to him. The same may also be said for the contemplative person; he needs himself alone; he lacks nothing.

Suet624 Lovely. 7y
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GoneFishing

Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.

LauraJ Truth! 8y
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BookFairy
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