Leisure, we quickly learn, is the reward for hard work, the chance to recharge before returning to the fray. But idleness is unearned, unjustified, self-indulgent – certainly not something a responsible human being with any concern for self-realization should engage in… That anyway has been the prevailing view in western societies at least since the enlightenment. See Kant, Marx, Hegel and many others. Idleness is unworthy. Kant writes:
‘Work his way onward’ – that’s a view that matches very well with our relentless contemporary pursuit of status, prestige, advancement, productivity.
My guest in today’s programme, Brian O’Connor, professor of philosophy at University College, Dublin, challenges the inevitability of this world view and the obloquy heaped on idleness. His recent book on the subject, Idleness: A Philosophical Essay, investigates what it is we find so disconcerting about idleness and whether the wholesale condemnation of it holds philosophical water. And with increasing automation and use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, contemplating the meaning of idleness may be a question of growing relevance.