PHIL 3160 – Philosophy of Happiness

What is it, how can we best pursue it, why should we? Supporting the study of these and related questions at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond. "Examining the concept of human happiness and its application in everyday living as discussed since antiquity by philosophers, psychologists, writers, spiritual leaders, and contributors to pop culture."

Thursday, March 10, 2022

In Praise of Idleness (1932)

In Bertrand Russell's idle idyll of a utopia...

"Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia. The work exacted will be enough to make leisure delightful, but not enough to produce exhaustion. Since men will not be tired in their spare time, they will not demand only such amusements as are passive and vapid. At least one per cent will probably devote the time not spent in professional work to pursuits of some public importance, and, since they will not depend upon these pursuits for their livelihood, their originality will be unhampered, and there will be no need to conform to the standards set by elderly pundits. But it is not only in these exceptional cases that the advantages of leisure will appear. Ordinary men and women, having the opportunity of a happy life, will become more kindly and less persecuting and less inclined to view others with suspicion. The taste for war will die out, partly for this reason, and partly because it will involve long and severe work for all. Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen instead to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines. In this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever."
https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/#:~:text=Above%20all%2C%20there,foolish%20for%C2%A0ever.

2 comments:

  1. If you all decide you'd like to read the same text next, I suggest you consider this essay as well as Russell's "Conquest of Happiness"-also available digitally.

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  2. Interesting...to taste this idea of life; It's difficult to wrap my head around. We have been so conditioned to regard life and work as a means to end. In pursuit of more for more, essentially gaining less; rather than in pursuit of less is more and having time to live.

    This would be interesting to touch on.

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