What is the Foundation of Culture?

[tbieter]

Work? Religion? Leisure? Or something else?

Reading the book, WORK -The Meaning of Your Life - A Christian Perspective, by Lester Dekoster, who argues that work is the basis of culture, I was startled by this paragraph:

"3. The writer who speaks of Leisure, the Basis of Culture (Josef Pieper) is confused, even though he can quote some ancient Greek thinkers in his support. Work is the basis of culture. Leisure cultivated as a way of life produces no harvests but only dilettantes - drones that absorb culture without sacrificing for it, merely thieves of others' sweat." p. 40

Dekoster contends that leisure, "cultivated as a way of life", is not foundational because it produces "no harvests", no useful things.

Pieper's book, however, discusses the word "leisure" in a radically different sense. And, second, its goal is not to make useful things.

Regarding the concept of leisure, in the preface Pieper writes this about the two essays in the book:

"Their common origin or foundation might be stated in the following words: Culture depends for its very existence on leisure, and leisure, in its turn, is not possible unless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship." xiv

Rather, about leisure, Pieper writes:

"Against the exclusiveness of the paradigm of work as activity, first of all, there is leisure as "non-activity" - an inner absence of preoccupation, a calm, an ability to let things go, to be quiet.

Leisure is a form of that stillness that is the necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear , and whoever is not still, cannot hear.

Leisure is the disposition of receptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion - in the real" p. 31

Second, Dekoster fails to distinguish the speculative order from the practical order. As Jacques Maritain teaches in his Art and Scholasticism, in the former are virtues whose "sole end is to know." In the speculative order are Understanding first principles, Science, and Wisdom. "The practical order is opposed to the speculative order because there man tends to something other than knowledge only. If he knows, it is no longer to rest in the truth, and enjoy it (frui), it is to use (uti) his knowledge, with a view to some work or some action[2]"

I doubt the Dekoster actually read Pieper's book. If he did, he certainly did not understand it.

Finally, I agree with Pieper and Christopher Dawson. And as the process of de-Christianization proceeds in Europe and in the U.S., the end of the cultures will be states of decadence.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1880595729/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
http://www.catechismclass.com/files/pdf ... tected.pdf
http://www3.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/art2.htm

leisure
noun
1.
freedom from the demands of work or duty:
She looked forward to retirement and a life of leisure.
2.
time free from the demands of work or duty, when one can rest, enjoy hobbies or sports, etc.:
Most evenings he had the leisure in which to follow his interests.

Christopher Dawson, historian:
"The core of Dawson’s thought is that religious cult lies at the heart of every culture. Countering the materialist interpretations of human society, culture for Dawson was not limited by its geographic location or material resources. To genetic, geographic, and economic factors Dawson added “a fourth element—thought or the psychological factor—which is peculiar to the human species” and cannot be explained by the other components. This fourth factor organizes the remaining three; each society must contain a core of belief that forms its identity. Dawson applied this insight and his innovative historical methodology, which adopted sociological and anthropological concepts, to both Christian and non- Christian cultures. Indeed, because he thought that the religious impulse was universal and multifaceted, there is a sympathy in his understanding of non-Western cultures that standard anthropology sometimes lacks".
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/a ... rticle=547

[Hobbes' Choice]

skolia is the foundation of culture.
That's why the Greeks called work askolia.
It was only those with leisure that had the time to enjoy and consider culture, the arts and philosophy.

[tbieter]

skolia is the foundation of culture.
That's why the Greeks called work askolia.
It was only those with leisure that had the time to enjoy and consider culture, the arts and philosophy.

So your understanding is more in agreement with Pieper and Dawson than with Dekoster?

Skolion (redirected from Skolia)
Skolion
Not to be confused with scholion
Skolion (pl. skolia), also scolion (pl. scolia), were songs sung by invited guests at banquets in ancient Greece. Often extolling the virtues of the gods or heroic men, skolia were improvised to suit the occasion and accompanied by a lyre, which was handed about from singer to singer as the time for each scolion came around.[1] "Capping" verses were exchanged, "by varying, punning, riddling, or cleverly modifying" the previous contribution.[2]
Skolia are often referred to as 'banquet songs', 'convivial songs", or 'drinking songs'. The term also refers to poetry composed in the same form.[3] In later use, the form was used in a more stately manner for chorus poetry in praise of the gods or heroes.
Terpander is said to have been the inventor of this poetic form, although that is doubtful. Instead, he may have adapted it for musical accompaniment. That these skolia were written, not only by poets like Alcaeus, Anacreon, Praxilla, Simonides, but also by Sappho and by Pindar,[4] shows in what high esteem skolia were held by the Greeks. "The gods of Olympos sang at their banquets".[5]
The Skolion of Seikilos, dated between 200 BCE and 100 CE, found with the original music in the ancient Greek notation, is the oldest complete example of ancient Greek music.[6][7]

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Ascolia

[WanderingLands]

Work? Religion? Leisure? Or something else?

The fourth one, I think is the answer. More specifically, the 'something else' that which permeates the first three components that are present in human culture, and that is the bonding of people itself to produce those things. It's the underlying 'World Spirit', permeating within us, that compels us to know each other as we know ourselves.

[Hobbes' Choice]

skolia is the foundation of culture.
That's why the Greeks called work askolia.
It was only those with leisure that had the time to enjoy and consider culture, the arts and philosophy.

So your understanding is more in agreement with Pieper and Dawson than with Dekoster?
a

Scholia(2,530 words)
(τὰ σχόλια/tà schólia, Lat. scholia). The sg. σχόλιον (schólion), a diminutive of σχολή (scholḗ, Leisure), appears at first in the sense of 'learned discussion' (Cic. Att. 16,7,3); later 'note' to an author (Marinus, Vita Procli 27), then 'marginal note' (Anastasios Sinaites, Viae Dux 3,1,1-3; 24,134-136). Scholia are thence exegetical comments, written beside the text in the margins of medieval manuscripts and attested since the 6th cent. AD.


The point is that only those men of leisure were able to study. "School" was not regarded as a chore, but what you did if you were lucky enough, rich enough or privileged enough to have some free time.