@philosophyminis: When you first meet someone, you're often forced into small talk, and it's usually only a matter of time before someone says, "So, what do you do for a job?" That question makes sense, because most people spend about a third of their lives at work. But according to Aristotle, it's a poor way to really understand someone. How much can you actually learn about a person from what they do to earn a living? For Aristotle, a much better question would be: "How do you spend your leisure time?" Work has a practical purpose. We do it to earn money, to put food on the table, to keep the heating on in the winter. But the purpose of human life, for Aristotle, is not just to survive, but to thrive. To develop character, to pursue excellence, and to live a life of meaning. And that happens not during the necessary hours of labour, but in the time outside of work. Leisure is where we feed the parts of ourselves that make us human. It's where we build relationships, explore hobbies, learn new things, and take wonder in the world around us. A robot can work all day in a factory, and in doing so it is defined by its function. But a robot starts to become a person when it goes home to play with its dog. A robot becomes a person when it goes birdwatching, or calls its mother, or opens a book. Spare time is not spare. It is the only time we have to truly be human.

Jonny Thomson

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Region: GB

Sunday 27 July 2025 14:15:00 GMT