The Value of Leisure and What Philosophers Say About Free Time
Leisure is the time we spend for our own sake. For example, lying on the beach to relax is a leisure activity, but lying on the beach as a model for a photo shoot is work. What one person sees as work might be leisure for someone else. The ways people spend their leisure time also change depending on the time period and society.
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue wrote The Right to Be Lazy to show how harmful work can be for both workers and capitalists. He believed that people are free to flourish both mentally and physically when they have leisure. According to him, work is dehumanising. People become addicted to working and end up living unhealthy lives.
Leisure, on the other hand, allows people to live the way humans are supposed to. Lafargue’s point is not just that rest is good for health or that it gives time to think, but that it gives us freedom. He believed that technology could help people work less. However, today’s world is moving in the opposite direction. The relationship between work, leisure and technology is still a big issue.
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick introduced a famous thought experiment called the Experience Machine. Thought experiments are imaginary scenarios used to explore ideas. Nozick asked us to imagine a machine that could make you feel happy all the time. If people chose to plug into it and live their whole lives inside it, then maybe happiness is all that matters.
But if people refused to enter the machine because they value real experiences, then Nozick’s experiment shows that happiness alone is not enough. This matters when we think about leisure. Is the best way to spend free time just to feel good? Or is there something more important?
Aristotle
Aristotle believed the goal of human life is happiness or well being. He thought leisure plays a big part in achieving that goal. Like Lafargue, he saw leisure as essential, but he had a more positive view of it.
For Aristotle, it’s not about having free time just to relax. Instead, it’s about using leisure for valuable activities, ones we enjoy for their own sake like learning or thinking. He believed that knowing which activities are worth doing in our free time is a serious matter. It’s not just about personal taste. It’s about ethics. Only excellent people, he said, know how to spend leisure well by doing rational and meaningful things.
Epicurus
Epicurus believed that everyone, regardless of gender or class, could enjoy leisure. He argued that the purpose of life is to experience pleasure. But not just any kind of pleasure. He meant a state of peace and calm, where the body is free from pain and the mind is free from anxiety.
To reach this peaceful state, people should avoid unnecessary stress and danger. Unlike Aristotle, Epicurus did not believe that political activity was necessary for a good life. For him, a simple and quiet life was the best use of leisure.
References
The Open University 2016, educational resource, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, viewed 1 July 2025.