Philosophy of Work (and Leisure)
Professor Mona Mona Tuesdays 1pm EST Smarties University
Course Description
In this course, we will study the history of ideas of work/labor/activity that has brought us to a situation where work is not working for most of us. We will draw on historical materialism, feminist theory, critical theory, popular and motivational literature, and anything else that we run across and get excited about. This is a short, exploratory 6 week course, so one of the main assignments is going to be a literature review.
Goals
- Understand how the protestant work ethic comes to be so predominant in our culture (anglo-American).
- How is the protestant work ethic intertwined with capitalism.
- Create literature review on the topic of work, and leisure.
- Explore challenges to Hegelian/Marx/Arendt assumption that work/labor/activity is foundational to our identities.
- Exploring alternatives, utopias, idealist experiments in work life design.
Assignments
Literature Review: an annotated bibliography that contains work references, a high level overview for each entry, and a statement about the relevance of that resource to one's own investigation.
6 WUPs - Write Ups, one per week: Pulls together one's notes produced during reading sessions.
3 Posts for my Substack; Treats one idea taken from the WUPs and notes and elaborates them into an essay that others can enjoy reading and learning from. Posts may answer some of the questions we identify as goals above.
Final Essay: Could be one of the Substack posts that gets elaborated further, doing an experimental essay, or it could be that we take one idea that we encountered and deepen knowledge and/or do something fun with it. Like creating a video about what you learned, art work based on the ideas, or going out into your community and teaching someone about what you learned. This last idea could be a really cool challenge.
We also plan to augment our key readings with audio books while doing other things, like walking and cooking and cleaning, etc.
Reading List
- The Problem With Work by Weeks, KathiPrimary text (2011)
- Hijacked by Anderson, ElizabethPrimary text (2025)
- Why Work? by Power, NinaAudio
- People Who Lunch by Olds, SallyAudio
- Working Class History by Chomsky, NoamAudio
- Mutual Aid by Spade, DeanAudio
- Leisure by Pieper, Josef
- Decolonizing Time by Shippen, N.
- The Human Condition by Arendt, Hannah
Weekly Schedule
Week 1: August 26 — Introduction
- Weeks, Introduction, pp. 1-36
- Anderson, Preface, and The Dual Nature of the Protestant Work Ethic, pp. ix, 1-19, and Conclusion: What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?, pp. 284-230
- Due: Start the Literature Review; WUP 1
Week 2: Sept 2 — Mapping the Work Ethic
- Weeks, Mapping the Work Ethic, pp. 37-78
- Power, Nina. Why Work?
- Due: Literature Review Continued; WUP 2; Post 1
Week 3: Sept 9 — Marxism & Productivism
- Weeks, Marxism, Productivism, pp. 79-113
- Anderson, The Progressive Work Ethic (3): Marx, pp. 203-224
- Due: Literature Review Completed; WUP 3
Week 4: Sept 16 — OFF
Week 5: Sept 23 — Working Demands
- Weeks, Working Demands, pp. 113-150
- Anderson, Social Democracy as the Culmination of the Progressive Work Ethic, pp. 225-253
- Due: WUP 4
Week 6: Sept 30 — Hours For What We Will
- Weeks, Hours For What We Will, pp. 151-174
- Olds, Sally. People Who Lunch
- Due: WUP 5; Post 2
Week 7: Oct 7 — Future Is Now
- Weeks, Future Is Now, and Epilogue, pp. 175-234
- Anderson, Hijacked Again: Neoliberalism as the Return of the Conservative Work Ethic, pp. 254-283
- Due: WUP 6
Week 8: Oct 28 — Unconference
- EVENT: Unconference
- Due: Final Essay; Post 3
Discussion Questions
- How does the protestant work ethic come to be so predominant in our culture?
- How is the protestant work ethic intertwined with capitalism?
- What challenges exist to the Hegelian/Marx/Arendt assumption that work/labor/activity is foundational to our identities?
- What alternatives, utopias, or idealist experiments in work life design can we imagine?