Analysis Of Joseph Pieper's Leisure: The Basis Of Culture

Joseph Pieper in Leisure: The Basis of Culture, wrote numerous topics which are linked to Western philosophical and religious traditions. The most interesting to me was his focus on leisure, work, and their relationship. The term “leisure”, dates back to the early 14th century, the original definition is “the opportunity to do something”. The Greek meaning of leisure is derived from the work skole, in English “school”. Today, the word leisure is just a playoff of the word “fun” or for me that is what I think of when I hear the term leisure. However, I understood a good amount of the information I read, there was a parts where I became befuddled. Pieper had described in detail, specific elements of leisure: leisure is a form of silence, or stillness, it is also a form of celebration, of festivities, and it is non-instrumental. …show more content…
Pieper describes that leisure is a form of silence but it does not mean “noiselessness” but it means the power of our soul to answer the reality of the world. The attitude of it is unique and unusual but spectacularly spiritual, the soul is in a way, a being of power that has the ability to make its own decisions. The comprehension to understand that is really up there on the scale of difficulty. Among many other points, Pieper asks whether work is what the world is made up of and if our purpose is work, additionally, if leisure is just a break of work. He states that this isn’t the case, but work cannot define oneself and our purpose, in the sense, that the “world is defined as a world of work” (39). To conclude, work does not define an individual, it is just a part of what a person