title: Leisure: The Basis of Culture
author:  Josef Pieper 
description: Pieper has subjects involved in everyone's life; he has theses that are so counter to prevailing trends as to be sensational; and he has a style that is memorably clear and direct. --<i>Chicago Tribune</i><br /><br />Pieper's message for us is plain.... The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mind-all this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave society.... Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable. --<i>New York Times Book Review</i><br /><br />These two short essays by a contemporary German philosopher go a long way towards a lucid explanation of the present crisis in civilisation.... The first essay... should be read by anyone-and young people in particular-anxious to come to some conclusions about the nature of society." --<i>The Spectator, London</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  LEISURE THE BASIS OF CULTURE
  
  
  ~
  
  
  THE PHILOSOPHICAL ACT
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  JOSEF PIEPER
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # LEISURE THE BASIS OF CULTURE
  
  
  ~
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # THE PHILOSOPHICAL ACT
  
  
  TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER DRU
  
  
  IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Original edition:  
  © 1952 by Pantheon Books, Inc.
  
  
  English translation © 1963 by Random House, Inc.  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  Published by arrangement with Pantheon, an imprint of  
  the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,  
  a division of Random House, Inc.
  
  
  Cover photograph by  
  © Christina Hanck / istockphoto
  
  
  Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
  
  
  Foreword © 2009 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco  
  All rights reserved  
  ISBN 978-1-58617-256-5 (PB)  
  ISBN 978-1-68149-291-9 (EB)  
  Library of Congress Control Number 2007942856  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  CONTENTS
  
  
  [Foreword by James V. Schall, S.J](index_split_006.html#filepos9478)
  
  
  [Author’s Preface to the English Edition](index_split_007.html#filepos18278)
  
  
  [LEISURE THE B