Medieval schoolmen, for instance, made a distinction between two types of intellectual activities which they called ratio and intellectus. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Intellectus is the name of the understanding insofaras it is the capacity of simplex intuitus, of that simple vision to which truth offers itself like a landscape to the eye.. "The mode of discursive thought is accompanied and impregnated by an effortless awareness, the contemplative vision of the intellectus, which is not active but passiv e, or rather receptive, the activity of the soul in which it conceives that which it sees. QUESTIONS: (1)Quest. But the older tradition valued doing and making less than seeing: "Man's real wealth consists, not in satisfying his needs, not in becoming 'the master and owner of nature' [Descartes], but in seeing what is and the whole of what is, in seeing things not as useful or useless, serviceable or not, but simply as being. We rightly pay all honor to the men controlling the navy at the time it won these great deeds, honor to Secretary Long and Admiral Dewey, to the captains who handled the ships in action, to the daring lieutenants who braved death in the smaller craft, and to the heads of bureaus at Washington who saw that the ships were so commanded, so armed, so equipped, so well engined, as to insure the best results. There is an entry in Baudelaire... "One must work, if not from taste then at least from despair. Is not true leisure one with true toil. Thus `time' has a different meaning for men and for women. V. - The influence of the ideal of leisure - ".... it possible, from now on, to maintain and defend, or even to reconquer, the right and claims of lesiure, in face of the claims of "total labour" that are invading every sphere of life? 'Tis the brook's motion, Clear without strife, Fleeting to ocean, After this life. If you are a leader in a business who is ravaging the environment and weakening the world for a future generation, that runs counter to the purpose of life.
If it is the latter, we have left the world of leisure and entered the "total work" state in which man is reduced to worker. When a culture is in the process of denying its own roots, it becomes most important to know what these roots are. Gives the president the power to create the national monument. "No, the contrary of acedia is not the spirit of work in the sense of the work of every day, of earning one's living; it is man's happy and cheerful affirmation of his own being, his acquiescence in the world and in God—which is to say love. This third effect, spiritual impoverishment, often self-inflicted, may be the worst: "in this context everyone whose life is completely filled by his work…has shrunk inwardly, and contracted, with the result that he can no longer act significantly outside his work. " May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. Onwards! Unswerving Podcast with Various Hosts. And they can also pursue a higher vision of all three that would lead to better paying jobs that welcome more of who they fully are. 1906 Antiquities Act: - Teddy Roosevelt. The Lord's day was given by God to man as a gift so that man might give back to God the worship that is due to Him alone. We must govern it wisely and well, primarily in the interest of its own people. Our proper conduct toward the tropic islands we have wrested from Spain is merely the form which our duty has taken at the moment. The reduction of man to worker, and the reduction of leisure to social function, changes the "conception of the very meaning of human existence. " Will you regret any positive, loving impact you made on others?
Leisure is contemplative; in it the "inner eye to dwell[s]... upon the reality of the Creation. " It is the realm of meaning that gives our lives significance. The right response to a realization of this magnitude is to work as diligently and swiftly as possible to move to a job that is meaningful. Is not true leisure one with true toile. The justification of leisurte ar e not that the funcitonary should function faultlessly and without a breakdown, but that the functionary should continue to be a man... Ratio, like our 'ratiocination', is what a computer can be made to do — or could do, if it had intellectus, which it does not. This reaches the modern existentialist extreme in which any action is "good" simply because it is action. Follow On Pinterest.
What's Right What's Left. If leisure is as important as Pieper thinks it is, and is as embattled as it appears, we will naturally ask what can be done to improve its fortunes. Business success became synonymous with money, enjoyment, and feeling significant. It comes mostly from the left wing, where the premise is more widely accepted. Were there not these still mirrors to reflect the beauty of the heavens to us, it might be lost to eyes so seldom lifted upwards. And that is true rest. "It is possible to pray in such a way that one does not transcend the world, in such a way that the divine is degraded to a functional part of the workaday world... then it is no longer devotion to the divine, but an attempt to master it. On Leisure: The Basis Of Culture. Pieper is careful to stress over and again that leisure is unconcerned with utility, and this is where we encounter the intersection between leisure, education, and worship. Personally, I am far too firm a believer in the greatness of my country and the power of my countrymen to admit for one moment that we shall ever be driven to the ignoble alternative. And there is no festival which does not draw its vitality from worship and that has not become a festival by virtue of its origin in worship. I knew enough of myself, of the draw of leisure, and of what happens to others who retire early. By focusing on connecting with others, on working to make things better for everyone around you, and on learning and growing from the challenges at work, we can maximize meaning in nearly every job. I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease but for the life of strenuous endeavor.
It gives rise to the idiotic notion, "To work means to pray. " If, during the years to come, any disaster should befall our arms, afloat or ashore, and thereby any shame come to the United States, remember that the blame will lie upon the men whose names appear upon the roll-calls of Congress on the wrong side of these great questions. It is something that we can prepare for, but not something we can will to do; Aristotle said that a man could experience leisure "not to the extent that he is a man, but to the extent that a divine principle dwells within him". Picture Quotes © 2022. And yet, life itself is a gift! For good or ill. My own story: When I started Mainstay Technologies (the technology services company where I continue to serve as CEO), I knew very little about work's purpose. We even find some difficulty in grasping that it reverses the order of things and stands them on their head. As I wrestled with my obligation to those around me, something deeper, truer, and more ancient, began to show itself. The guns that thundered off Manila and Santiago left us echoes of glory, but they also left us a legacy of duty. Meaning in work is just one aspect of the story and of a healthy life. Sweet is the pleasure itself cannot spoil. Is not true leisure one with true toil. What we value, and our times of greatest fulfillment, fall under these three headings. If we take Pieper seriously, the answer to much of our spiritual void comes by cultivating the atmosphere of leisure in our own lives. This same sort of humility is at work when we accept God's grace. There is that restlessness that makes leisure impossible.
It isn't just about finding work you love, it is about fulfilling the very purpose of your life. These are the big questions of life. For in one case it is called Useful Knowledge, and in the other Liberal. Our belief about work's purpose ultimately changes our careers, our lives, and the lives of others. They live an "illusion of a life fulfilled. " And how can you pursue the kind of healthy roles and healthy career growth that shapes you into the best version of your future self? The proletarian is the man who is fettered to the process of work. By the same token, "deproletarianizing" would mean: enlarging the scope of life beyond the confines of merely useful servile work, and limiting the sp here of servile work to the advantage of the liberal arts. Pieper does not make the distinction to denigrate those trained in the servile arts but rather to demonstrate the connection between leisure and the liberal arts. As for those in our own country who encourage the foe, we can afford contemptuously to disregard them; but it must be remembered that their utterances are not saved from being treasonable merely by the fact that they are despicable. He should retain the faculty of grasping the world as a whole and realizing his full potentialities as an entity mean t to reach Wholeness. We are today in danger sometimes of seeing these two as synonyms, but in the tradition they are antonyms. Leisure put to utilitarian ends misses the point. Following the Second World War it seemed there was only time to pick up the pieces of a broken society.
It may seem that the quest for leisure has become a fetish for us moderns, and the less said of it the better. You're leaving God behind. We can all find greater meaning in our work. Our attitude and approach can make them more so.
Like the gift for contemplative absorption in the things that are, and like the capacity of the spirit to soar in festive celebration, the power to know leisure is the power to overstep the boundaries of the workaday world and reach out to superhuman, life-giving existential forces that refresh and renew us before we turn back to our daily work. Leisure is confident; we can say with God, "It is good. Pieper was in favor of work, but he drew. Keep these as your north star.
If we are to restore the culture in keeping with Pieper's vision, then taking a stand for Sunday is worth it.