Leisure: The Basis of Culture
Review by Benjamin Mitchell
Pieper, Josef. Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Ignatius Press, 2009. (paid link)
Josef Pieper’s magnificent classic, Leisure: The Basis of Culture (1952), was originally published in the wake of World War II, addressing the realities of 20th-century fragmentation and powerful, totalizing, modern tendencies. He rejects the tendency to see our lives as “total work.” In essence, then and now, Pieper presents readers with ideas, philosophers, questions, and arguments of lasting value. Envisioning leisure as a foundation of Western culture, Pieper defends leisure as a mental and spiritual attitude: “it is not simply the result of external factors, it is not the inevitable result of spare time, a holiday, a week-end or a vacation. It is, in the first place, an attitude of mind, a condition of the soul…” (26). My hope in this review, composed for people unfamiliar with the book or its essays (or its sources), is to recover enough of Pieper’s logic to persuade you to read it and to highlight what I have found good therewithin.
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Pieper’s essay has four parts and it is framed by two epigraphs that guide his readers like Vergil in Dante’s Inferno. They are from Plato’s Laws (653c-d) and Psalm 46:10 translated from the Septuagint, beginning with σχολάσατε (Gk: “to be at leisure”). His erudite footnotes refer back to ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary philosophers. I will make note of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics; Kant’s philosophical works; John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University; and various German poets and philosophers. Easily outflanking the rest, Thomas Aquinas buttresses Pieper’s arguments throughout and he draws insights from Summa Theologica, various commentaries, and works on disputed ideas. Thus, I first encourage readers interested in leisure to study this lucid essay closely and learn from his sources.
Pieper’s thesis is that culture depends on leisure. Leisure, he writes, “is not possible unless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship” (xix). Pieper explains that cultus means more than religion and it fulfills the ritual of shared sacrifice. It is a primary source of human freedom, independence, and immunity within society. He defines culture as “the quintessence of all the natural goods of the world and of those gifts and qualities which, while belonging to man, lie beyond the immediate sphere of his need and wants” (xx). Philosophy is among the goods which are at home in the realm of freedom, “in its innermost circle.” Pieper defends the philosophical act in terms of the Western tradition of philosophy in Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. As such, philosophy is a ”fundamental relation to reality” and a contemplative attention to things, “in which man begins to see how worthy of veneration they really are.” The Preface and Part I set the stage for his argument. Here, we are reminded, for instance, that the word for leisure in Greek is σχολέ and Latin scola, which in English means “school” – the place where we educate and teach according to the civilized world of the ancient Greeks. Turning from Max Weber’s modern view that one lives to work, Pieper suggests instead that we work in order to have leisure or, as Aristotle nobly claims, “we are unleisurely in order to have leisure.” Pieper demonstrates how Christian and Western conceptions of “contemplation” and “liberal arts” are linked to older Aristotelian ideas. Here, we see Pieper’s Thomistic reasoning closely following Aristotle.
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Part II contrasts distinctively modern views of work with ancient and medieval alternatives. Pieper proceeds with arguments about knowledge and work, hard or difficult work and suffering, and the social implications of intellectual work. Each idea is addressed in turn by Pieper on a variety of levels. For instance, the social implications turn on metaphysical questions, the meaning of the liberal arts, and how we understand philosophical education, which defies standards of utility. In Part III, we see Pieper’s confirmation of leisure defended on its own terms philosophically. We find remarkable observations in this section such as the idea that leisure is a form of silence, the prerequisite of apprehension of reality. Leisure implies, first, an attitude of non-activity, of inward calm, and of silence (27); it is, second, as an attitude of contemplative “celebration” (only possible for those “at one” with themselves and the world) and “inner vision” (29); and, third, it is of a higher order than the vita activa and opposed to the ideal of work qua social function (31). He upholds time set apart for feasts as one prime example of leisure. Part IV challenges readers to think about the problems of realizing the hopes and claims of leisure. After an excursus on misunderstandings including the meaning of the word “proletarian,” Pieper returns to his argument to state that the “soul of leisure” lies in celebration. He concludes, “leisure can only be made possible and indeed justifiable upon the same basis as the celebration of a feast; and that formation is divine worship” (45). In contrast with the world of “total work,” Pieper offers a philosophical vision of “the deepest of the springs by which leisure is fed and continues to be vital … an essential part of a full human existence” (49). Leisure, like philosophy, is a way to be and act such that we step out of, even transcend, the everyday world of work. A second essay in this book explores the philosophical act fully.
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In the end, Pieper challenges our priorities and the order of value that constitutes our activities and thinking. T.S. Eliot introduces Pieper’s book suggesting that his argument is akin to philosophy “in an older meaning of the word” that expresses insight and wisdom. I am fortunate to have read this book at a number of points in my life, and I am grateful for the professor in college who recommended it to me in the first place. In each season of life, I have seen more deeply and philosophically into the arguments. I have come to see that what we do when we are not compelled by necessity or force often reflects the things that matter most, our character and culture, and, thus, what we deem worthy of choice. I heartily recommend this book for people seeking to deepen their capacity for philosophy or who desire to find a greater openness to reality and human freedom, and a whole new world of meaning in leisure.
Dr. Ben Mitchell is a Teacher Resource Portal Manager at Great Hearts America working with a team of authors on history curriculum. He served as the founding Headmaster of Lincoln Prep, where he taught across the curriculum and led the community for seven years. Prior to joining Great Hearts, Ben taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in areas of political philosophy and grand strategy, as well as the University of Richmond, having finished his Ph.D. and M.A. at the University of Virginia and B.A. cum laude in Classics-History-Politics with a Minor in Renaissance Studies at Colorado College. Beyond endless learning, Ben loves traveling, cooking, reading, gardening year-round in his backyard, good conversations, skiing in Flagstaff, and enjoying awesome adventures with his wife and daughters.