Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper

Leisure: The Basis of Culture Josef Pieper ebook
ISBN: 9781586172565
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Format: pdf
Page: 145

In his book, “Leisure: The Basis of Culture,” the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper called leisure a “condition of the soul.” It's not the same thing as inactivity or quiet. The book was first published in 1952. A quote from Joseph Pieper's Leisure the Basis of Culture (p11-12) was helpful to me here: 'The medievals distinguished between the intellect as ratio and the intellect as intellectus. Study index of Leisure, the Basis of Culture. And yet, an authentic definition of his word can give a whole new perspective on its importance. The good of book groups is not only the accountability of actually reading, but also the accountability of actually thinking about what you're reading. €Culture depends for its very existence on leisure, and leisure, in its turn, is not possible unless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship. 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. In Leisure, Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper, a twentieth century German Catholic philosopher, talks about a connection between leisure and the world of work (i.e., world of utilitarian measures). Josef Pieper advocated that leisure must be seen again as the true basis of culture. But that's not how Christianity understands leisure. Pieper wrote the two very readable essays in this book, “Leisure: the Basis of Culture” and “The Philosophical Act,” at the end of World War II. According to Josef Pieper, leisure is the very basis of culture.