How to Flourish: Leisure & Learning

In the seventh salon of a nine-part series on human flourishing, join host Ashley Zhang to discuss the role of leisure and learning in a good life!

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”  ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Conduct of Life”

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only those are really alive.” — Seneca

Leisure, wrote German philosopher Josef Pieper, is the basis of Western culture and a basic power of the human soul. He wasn’t the first to believe this: the ancient Greeks believed leisure and contemplation were central to the pursuit of a flourishing life. In fact, the English word school originated from the Latin scola, which traces its roots to the Greek word for leisure, σχoλη. 

In a world that prizes productivity, it seems as if we have forgotten how to protect our leisure, or spend what little we have of it well. What happens to a culture that has lost its conception of leisure and that has forgotten how to cultivate a type of intellectual life that stands apart from institutionalized education? What happens to our souls?

And, if leisure and learning are truly central to a flourishing life, how can we restore them today?

Recommended readings:

Not required, just skim what you find interesting!

• Introduction to Lost in Thought (Zena Hitz)
• Sabbath and the Art of Rest (The Ezra Klein Show)
• Pliny the Younger on leisure
• Leisure: The Basis of Culture (Josef Pieper) 
  • Summary by “The Marginalian”