Just this summer, I read a book by Josef Pieper called "Leisure: the Basis of Culture" that is a response to what he calls the tyrannical culture of "total work

Just this summer, I read a book by Josef Pieper called "Leisure: the Basis of Culture" that is a response to what he calls the tyrannical culture of "total work". He begins the book with a bit history and a bit of etymology. For example, the word school comes from the Latin scola which in term comes from the Greek skole, both mean "leisure". Indeed, neither the Greeks nor the Romans had a word for work that wasn't the negation of a word meaning "leisure" (e.g., the Greek a-scolia and the Latin neg-otium, hyphens added for emphasis). This identification of leisure with school (as classically understood) is the source of the term "liberal arts" (artes liberales), that is, arts free from practical purpose, as opposed to the "servile work" (artes serviles). These can be related to theoria and praxis, respectively. Pieper distinguishes leisure from idleness or amusement which, for the man of total work, are the same. Leisure is not aimed at sensual indulgence but rather contemplative, receptive encounter with the world, with being. Here he distinguishes between intellectus and ratio, or a purely receptive intellection versus discursive thinking. Man, of course, needs to work. Pieper does not deny the need and proper value of work, but he rejects the primacy of work or work for work's sake. He is drawing attention to the superiority of contemplation to work. In any case, I recommend the book.