Another example to accompany Montaigne and Bertrand Russell might be Paul Lafargue's "The Right to be Lazy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy (Lafargue was Karl Marx' son-in-law). He takes the argument directly to the factory floor. Interesting especially since at the time a lot of socialist thinking revolve around increasing productivity and expanding industry. Lafargue argues the "otium" is a critical part of development and that the goal of a socialist society should seek to limit the hours of "negotium" to four hours a day, with the rest for the more important tasks.
It's interesting how this is framed as a choice: "how can you justify withdrawal from public life, if Stoicism teaches that the sage must participate actively in the community?" What happens when public life includes a calendar, a cycle of ritual, a discipline of practice, that INCLUDES an obligation to create unstructured time for reflection, learning, study in the form of intellectual, emotional and (dare I say it because it is so woo-woo-ey and ill defined) "spiritual" development? Two things: First, it may be easier to find the time to do this work if you have co-travelers so engaged. And second, some of those colleagues might turn out to be either your teachers or students, mentors or mentees. As guides, your colleagues will be supporting your own individual work and supporting them as peers they actually represent service to your community. Some religious institutions, alumni groups, book clubs, adult education programs, volunteering organizations and so on serve precisely this function. I'm pretty sure this is not a novel idea. Just an observation.
Stephen, yes, that frame sounds a bit peculiar to us, but for the Stoics "politics," meaning to work for the good of the polis, was the most important thing someone could do.
Being able to watch the river flow, a hummingbird in flight, dogs at play, or just looking at a clear blue sky, is very far from wasted time. Rather it refills the reservoirs of our heart and mind, and lasts though but a second or minute or two, it is worth more than any dime or dollar can buy.
A peasant never had to choose otium. Necessity took the time, but necessity is not a negotiating party.
Seneca had to choose. De otio is a defence, and you write a defence only when something with a claim on your time has made one first. The state could give reasons. He had to give reasons back. That was his class's problem centuries before there were factories. Industrial time did not invent the claimant. It gave everybody one.
Play in other mammals runs on the opposite logic. It appears only when the animal is healthy, has energy to spare, and is buffered from stress and danger. Burghardt builds that into the definition rather than treating it as a lucky background condition. Play happens in a relaxed field, and it is the first thing to go when pressure arrives.
Saying no, refusing to measure by visible output, carving the space out first: all of it loads the will. If otium is released by conditions in every other animal, some of ours probably works that way too. We need discipline for something rats do for free. That may be a fact about the arrangement rather than about our character.
I think we need to work, so to speak, on doing something that comes natural to other primates because post-Neolithic revolutino humans are very different (culturally, but not physically) from Pleistocene humans. And we are still adapting to the shift.
Thanks again, Massimo, for this excellent article on otium. I’ve spent almost my entire life being productive and chasing goals, leaving almost no time for myself in our busy world. Even now, in semi-retirement, my daily to-do list still feels more important than my time.
I’ll admit — I feel guilty when I spend time learning about Stoicism instead of being “productive,” and the to-do list just keeps growing. It’s still a real struggle for me. I do enjoy the satisfaction of getting things done. But I’m starting to see it differently: maybe the time I spend reading philosophy and simply thinking shouldn’t compete with my to-do list. Maybe it deserves a spot at the top of it.
Charles, I find the widespread American use of the term "productivity" to be one of the worst things about this culture. (I don't know whether you're American, but here you encounter the p-word everywhere.)
As for the place of Stoicism and philosophy, Seneca warns not to leave them at the bottom of the barrell, as an afterthought. They should be first and foremost, because they inform everything else we do.
Thanks Massimo. I've practiced this for some time without knowing these terms! When otium is filled with philosophy, negotium becomes more tolerable.
Another example to accompany Montaigne and Bertrand Russell might be Paul Lafargue's "The Right to be Lazy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Be_Lazy (Lafargue was Karl Marx' son-in-law). He takes the argument directly to the factory floor. Interesting especially since at the time a lot of socialist thinking revolve around increasing productivity and expanding industry. Lafargue argues the "otium" is a critical part of development and that the goal of a socialist society should seek to limit the hours of "negotium" to four hours a day, with the rest for the more important tasks.
Oh, that's interesting! Fours hours a day indeed! ✊️
And that was in the 1890's!
Remarkable!
It's interesting how this is framed as a choice: "how can you justify withdrawal from public life, if Stoicism teaches that the sage must participate actively in the community?" What happens when public life includes a calendar, a cycle of ritual, a discipline of practice, that INCLUDES an obligation to create unstructured time for reflection, learning, study in the form of intellectual, emotional and (dare I say it because it is so woo-woo-ey and ill defined) "spiritual" development? Two things: First, it may be easier to find the time to do this work if you have co-travelers so engaged. And second, some of those colleagues might turn out to be either your teachers or students, mentors or mentees. As guides, your colleagues will be supporting your own individual work and supporting them as peers they actually represent service to your community. Some religious institutions, alumni groups, book clubs, adult education programs, volunteering organizations and so on serve precisely this function. I'm pretty sure this is not a novel idea. Just an observation.
Stephen, yes, that frame sounds a bit peculiar to us, but for the Stoics "politics," meaning to work for the good of the polis, was the most important thing someone could do.
Being able to watch the river flow, a hummingbird in flight, dogs at play, or just looking at a clear blue sky, is very far from wasted time. Rather it refills the reservoirs of our heart and mind, and lasts though but a second or minute or two, it is worth more than any dime or dollar can buy.
A peasant never had to choose otium. Necessity took the time, but necessity is not a negotiating party.
Seneca had to choose. De otio is a defence, and you write a defence only when something with a claim on your time has made one first. The state could give reasons. He had to give reasons back. That was his class's problem centuries before there were factories. Industrial time did not invent the claimant. It gave everybody one.
Play in other mammals runs on the opposite logic. It appears only when the animal is healthy, has energy to spare, and is buffered from stress and danger. Burghardt builds that into the definition rather than treating it as a lucky background condition. Play happens in a relaxed field, and it is the first thing to go when pressure arrives.
Saying no, refusing to measure by visible output, carving the space out first: all of it loads the will. If otium is released by conditions in every other animal, some of ours probably works that way too. We need discipline for something rats do for free. That may be a fact about the arrangement rather than about our character.
I think we need to work, so to speak, on doing something that comes natural to other primates because post-Neolithic revolutino humans are very different (culturally, but not physically) from Pleistocene humans. And we are still adapting to the shift.
Thanks again, Massimo, for this excellent article on otium. I’ve spent almost my entire life being productive and chasing goals, leaving almost no time for myself in our busy world. Even now, in semi-retirement, my daily to-do list still feels more important than my time.
I’ll admit — I feel guilty when I spend time learning about Stoicism instead of being “productive,” and the to-do list just keeps growing. It’s still a real struggle for me. I do enjoy the satisfaction of getting things done. But I’m starting to see it differently: maybe the time I spend reading philosophy and simply thinking shouldn’t compete with my to-do list. Maybe it deserves a spot at the top of it.
Charles, I find the widespread American use of the term "productivity" to be one of the worst things about this culture. (I don't know whether you're American, but here you encounter the p-word everywhere.)
As for the place of Stoicism and philosophy, Seneca warns not to leave them at the bottom of the barrell, as an afterthought. They should be first and foremost, because they inform everything else we do.