I didn’t know terribly much about this word or its history and even reading most or all of this Wikipedia entry I’m not sure how much I’m closer to getting much that is useful out of it. But it’s still pretty interesting how a words etymology and general meaning can shift with cultures and time. Here’s a few…
Levison has now gone from working in a restaurant to working on the road with a friend of his named Jim. Jim is a truck driver who goes all around the US moving furniture for other companies and needs Levison’s help because the people they usually get aren’t dependable. Five-hundred a week is enough to…
I use “science” in quotation marks because I think most of us (especially followers of this site) will be familiar with this bit of “news” or just think it’s true on an intuitive basis. Regardless here’s the article I am referring to and a useful summary: After controlling for demographics and health behaviors, researchers found…
Nick’s Notes: As always we here at AW take a variety of perspectives on anti-work. We are pretty open in general to share anti-work sentiments so long as they are genuine and make good points. Keyne’s is (sort of) well known for advocating or at least seeing in the future more time for leisure and…
In Rotation of Crops (a part of his first published book Either/Or) Kierkaagard tackled the issue of boredom and briefly touches on the benefits of leisure: Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended…. Idleness as such is by no means a root of…
Today and tomorrow (and perhaps more if they can be found) we will be showcasing a few philosophers who had positive things to say about leisure. Here is something from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book X (emphasis added): Now this would seem to be in agreement both with what we said before and with the truth. For…
(Nick’s Notes: I have reprinted this article with the permission of both Brigid and the Washington Post. You should also check out her book when it comes out which sounds really interesting) Forget Russian figure skater Julia Lipnitskaia spinning in a blur with her leg impossibly held straight up against her ear. The sight of skier…
(Nick’s Notes: This essay has been republished from here. A follow-up article analyzing and critiquing certain parts of this essay shall be coming in the coming days. In Praise of Idleness By Bertrand Russell [1932[ Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying: ‘Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do.’…
(Nick’s Notes: This isn’t the first time we’ve seen good ol’ Nietzsche poke fun at how work is viewed in society. For another example of this see my essay, “Work, What is it Good For?”) Leisure and Idleness There is something of the American Indian, something of the ferocity peculiar to Indian blood, in the…