Leisure of Contemporary North American

Throughout the history of Western civilization, evolution of leisure has been linked to societal and political changes as well as to technological advancements. Aristotle defines leisure as “a state of being in which activity is performed for its own sake or as its own end” (Grazia p.13). The Greeks came up with the concept of leisure. They believed that a state could not flourish without leisure. Aristotle says, “The life of leisure was the only life fit for a Greek”(pg.19). The Greeks found leisure in ways such as music and contemplation. They believed that music gave way to other activities such as poetry, dance, and gymnastics. Contemplation to Greeks was seen as one of the “highest of all leisure activities because it was the part in man that was godlike, that most distinguished him from the animals”(p.24). Aristotle writes, “The man in contemplation is a free man; He needs nothing and nothing determines or distorts his thought; He does whatever he loves to do, and what he does is done for its own sake” (p.18). The concept of leisure was carried on to Rome through the teaching of the great Greek philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, and Epicurus). Roman writers such as Seneca describes leisure as a “pendulum of otium and negotium” (leisure and non-leisure). Seneca expresses in a letter that one should aim to say “ I am free, Lucilius, free, and wherever I am I am myself” (p.22). According to Grazia, “The emperor Julian, the last great defender of pagan ideals, solemnly declared that whoever tries to persuade us that the philosophical life, meaning the life of leisure and contemplation, is not superior to everything else, is trying to cheat us” (p.22). After the fall of the Roman Empire, the definition of work drastically changed from what the pagans considered work to be. According to Grazia, people sought manual work as “an instrument of self-purification, of repentance or for helping others in charity (p.24)”. The Classical period lasted from