Idleness: A Philosophical Essay

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

The case for idleness as freedom from usefulness, performance, and the opinion of others

For millennia, idleness and laziness have been seen as vices. We’re all expected to work to survive and get ahead, and devoting energy to anything but labor and self-improvement can seem like a luxury or a moral failure. Far from questioning this conventional wisdom, modern philosophers have entrenched it, viewing idleness as an obstacle to the ethical need people have to be autonomous, to be useful, to contribute to the social good, or simply to avoid boredom.

In Idleness, the first book to challenge modern philosophy’s portrayal of inactivity, Brian O'Connor argues that the case against an indifference to work and effort is flawed-and that idle aimlessness may instead allow for the highest form of freedom.

‘This valuable book tackles an issue both timeless and urgent today: to what extent is an idle life a good life?’ - Mark Kingwell, University of Toronto

‘O'Connor’s vision of idleness is very ambitious and compelling, and the implications of the kind of shift he advocates are not insignificant…An exhilarating read.’ - Anthony Morgan, The Philosopher

‘Concise, well-argued and highly readable.’ - Harry R. Lloyd, Times Literary Supplement