Idleness - by Brian O'Connor (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The case for idleness as freedom from usefulness, performance, and the opinion of others

For millennia, idleness and laziness have been seen as vices. We're all expected to work to survive and get ahead, and devoting energy to anything but labor and self-improvement can seem like a luxury or a moral failure. Far from questioning this conventional wisdom, modern philosophers have entrenched it, viewing idleness as an obstacle to the ethical need people have to be autonomous, to be useful, to contribute to the social good, or simply to avoid boredom. In Idleness, the first book to challenge modern philosophy's portrayal of inactivity, Brian O'Connor argues that the case against an indifference to work and effort is flawed--and that idle aimlessness may instead allow for the highest form of freedom.

From the Back Cover

"Idleness is engagingly written, stimulating, and illuminating. Brian O'Connor handles his material deftly, taking the reader to the heart of the issues."--Michael Rosen, author of Dignity: Its History and Meaning

"This valuable book tackles an issue both timeless and urgent today: to what extent is an idle life a good life?"--Mark Kingwell, University of Toronto

Review Quotes

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

About the Author

Brian O'Connor is professor of philosophy at University College Dublin and the author of Adorno and Adorno's Negative Dialectic.