The Case for ‘Leisure’ in the University

A consequential message for university students...

Courtesy of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London

It would be shocking to run into a person, especially an undergraduate, who would argue against the need for free time. What prompts you to open this article if you directly connect leisure to having time off? Was it because you were curious about what someone could say about the importance of sports, hiking, or game nights with friends? But, your understanding of leisure is not the one I am defending. The way we attribute short-form amusement to leisure today is an indicative reflection of the gradual self-destruction of ‘culture’ and the ‘human person’. I frame ‘leisure’ here in the context of an engaged intellectual spirit embracing the world that surrounds them during their four formative years in university.

So, how did we get here? Joseph Pieper clarifies in his work Leisure, the Basis of Culture that leisure is a “form of silence, of that silence which is the prerequisite of the apprehension of reality”. To understand its origin, though, we must retrace back to ancient Greece. Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia equates the ultimate point of human flourishing to an enduring state of happiness just like Pieper’s ‘leisure’. In his Republic, Plato reasons that the accessibility of eudaimonia, this receptive attitude of mind, is reserved for elites who are freed from the cyclical mechanism of labor. But, in Laws, he adds that eudaimonia is also within reach for a select lower class who allocate themselves time for personal development through virtuous acts. Fast forward two millennia, we see that leisure plays out to be this patient interdisciplinary approach to both the curricular and the extracurricular in our modern American university. So, pragmatically, “How can we escape this paradox of being limited by our involvements? And, what are we missing in our approach to “wise time management?”

I claim that a superior “four year liberal education” can make all the difference in a human’s ability to experience a true sense of ‘leisure’ instead of getting stuck in the pursuit of instant gratification. Polymath philosopher John Stuart Mill clearly defines the purpose of universities in his 1867 inaugural address to the University of St. Andrews: their object is not to make “skillful lawyers, or physicians, or engineers, but capable and cultivated human beings”. Setting the foundation for ‘men’ to become empathetic to each other and capable of understanding underlying philosophical principles is what differentiates ‘men’ from all other forms of life. Michael Oakeshott, a key philosophic voice of the 20th century, advocated for universities that provide us with the time to meaningfully engage with ideas different from ours. The university institution’s power lies in its disposition to conjoin “a corporate body of scholars, each devoted to a particular branch of learning” who “live in permanent proximity”. What does this proximity do for the student? It fosters space for creativity, unified school traditions, and an overreaching “civil society”. It pushes the pupils to “cross-pollinate” amidst a variety of perspectives and challenge themselves to put thought to words in the form of civil discourse. This is what is going to anchor them into becoming lifelong interested learners.

The quest for knowledge in its end, as I see it, is leisure at its purest. The major and the professional path that follows down the line does not determine your competencies whatsoever. Be the innovative thinker who ‘plays’ with abstraction and contemplates the deeper meaning of things through ‘civil’ conversations; a characteristic Pieper defines as the intellectus. This is a calling for you to learn how to think and not to remember what you have learned. No matter your focus in college, a ‘liberal arts’ education is necessary.  No space other than the university offers a better environment to develop this sense of ‘virtue’ that Plato and Aristotle coined. Keep in mind the timeliness component to the university. It sets up the transcendental journey of learning for the sake of learning, which opens opportunities for wonder and discovery. John Henry Newman, a 19th-century academic who dedicated his life to education, relates the university to this precursor “to see, to hear, to learn”, to investigate the truth, or to train the intellectus as Cicero describes. This focuses our compass towards leisure in the right direction. But, we must beware; if not exercised properly, it can lead to a self-destructive path of absorption in transactional interactions and the refusal to acknowledge the essence of one’s self. The question remains, then, how to solve this dilemma of succeeding in college all while effortlessly soaking up ideas?

At a crucial period, universities grant us time to rest our minds “on a rose in bud, on a child at play, on a divine mystery”, as Pieper likes to say. After all, the existence of the university is founded on the pillar of immersing its students in a rich diversity of interdisciplinary subjects. While pursuing knowledge and the fruits that it bears seems innate, we are distracted by the glamorous paychecks that are attached to certain careers. Take this as a prescription to realign your life, at whatever stage of it you might be, by allowing yourself time to recognize the ‘truths’ of the world, much like a baby encountering the world for the first time. You will find that the anxieties that once plagued your mind’s freedom to enjoy a rich buffet of ideas will shortly vanish. Take the four years of your undergraduate education to acquaint yourself with the wholeness of your being. Relish in its inevitable transformations. Engage meaningfully with those who surround you. Reciprocate this exercise of leisure as a social “activity” rather than as a social “toil”.