Vita contemplativa : in praise of inactivity
Han, Byung-Chul2023
Book
Total copies: 1
Human existence becomes fully absorbed by activity - even leisure, treated as a respite from work, becomes part of the same logic. Intense life today means first of all more performance or more consumption. We have forgotten that it is precisely inactivity, which does not produce anything, that represents an intense and radiant form of life. For Byung-Chul Han, inactivity constitutes the human. Without moments of pause or hesitation, acting deteriorates into blind action and reaction. When life follows the rule of stimulus-response and need-satisfaction, it atrophies into pure survival: naked biological life. If we lose the ability to be inactive, we begin to resemble machines that simply function. In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han shows that the current crisis in our society calls for a very different way of life: one based on the vita contemplativa.
Main title:
Vita contemplativa : in praise of inactivity / Byung-Chul Han ; translated by Daniel Steuer.
Author:
Han, Byung-Chul, authorSteuer, Daniel, translator
Imprint:
Cambridge : Polity Press, 2023.
Collation:
v, 117 pages ; 21 cm
Notes:
Translated from the German.
Audience:
Specialized.
ISBN:
9781509558018 (pbk)
Dewey class:
128.2
Language:
EnglishGerman
Added title:
Subject:
BRN:
699702