Description: One of the most important philosophy titles published in the twentieth century, Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture is more significant, even more crucial, today than it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago. This edition also includes his work The Philosophical Act.
Brief description:
Josef Pieper, perhaps the most popular Thomist philosopher of the twentieth century, was schooled in the Greek classics and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. He also studied philosophy, law, and sociology, and he was a professor at the University of Munster, West Germany. His numerous books have been widely praised by both the secular and religious press.
Review Quotes:
"Pieper's message for us is plain... The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mind -- all this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave society... Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable."
-- New York Times Book Review
"Pieper has subjects involved in everyone's life; he has theses that are so counter to the prevailing trends as to be sensational; and he has a style that is memorably clear and direct."
-- Chicago Tribune
"This book is a gem. No other book its size will teach us so many true things about everything we need to know to understand what and why we are or about how to live a life worth living."
-- James V. Schall, SJ, from the Foreword