What do you think?
Rate this book
Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Introduction by T.S. Eliot
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1952
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2025
Another classic from Pieper. He draws from Thomistic and Aristotelian philosophy in the two essays that comprise this volume, 'Leisure the Basis of Culture' and 'The Philosophical Act'. In the first essay, he builds on the scholastic argument that an aspect of knowing comes from outside of ourselves and 'includes an element of non-activity, of purely receptive vision'. In the second, he affirms with the ancients that 'wisdom is the object of philosophy, but as lovingly sought, and never fully possessed'.
March 5, 2025
“That is the origin or source of all sham forms of leisure with their strong family resemblance to want of leisure and to sloth (in its old metaphysical and theological sense). The opportunity is given for the mere killing of time, and for boredom with its marked similarity to the inability to enjoy leisure; for one can only be bored if the spiritual power to enjoy leisure, or if you prefer, to be leisurely, has died away. There is an entry in Baudelaire's Journal Intime that is fearful in the precision of its cyni-cism: 'One must work, if not from taste then at least from despair. For, to reduce everything to a single truth: work is less boring than pleasure.' “
This translation of Pieper’s original German work is just as, if not more, relevant today as it was in 1904 when it was first published. Though his precision of language is at times difficult to follow, and his style leans towards the discursive— I appreciated his examination of true leisure and his various approaches to differentiating it from that idle or self-indulgent spirit of relaxation or vacation of the modern life. Even in that word “vacation,” I think Pieper would identify a key misconception of the nature of man’s true “rest.” It is not empty, nor is is characterized by the absence of work; rather it is quite full, it is the fulfillment of the supernatural quality of man.
This translation of Pieper’s original German work is just as, if not more, relevant today as it was in 1904 when it was first published. Though his precision of language is at times difficult to follow, and his style leans towards the discursive— I appreciated his examination of true leisure and his various approaches to differentiating it from that idle or self-indulgent spirit of relaxation or vacation of the modern life. Even in that word “vacation,” I think Pieper would identify a key misconception of the nature of man’s true “rest.” It is not empty, nor is is characterized by the absence of work; rather it is quite full, it is the fulfillment of the supernatural quality of man.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews