Leisure the Basis of Culture / Edition 1

ISBN-13:	9780865972100
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/25/1999
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	158
Sales rank:	436,026
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

This elegantly written work introduces the reader to an understanding that leisure is nothing less than “an attitude of mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world.” Pieper demonstrates that “Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture,” and observes, “in our bourgeois Western world total labor has vanquished leisure. 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.” Josef Pieper (1904–1997) was an influential German Catholic philosopher, scholar, and author.