Aristotle’s term of leisure (ἡ σχολή): an aporetic approach

Abstract

An immediate cause for the research done in this paper is contemporary authors’ attitude towards Aristotle’s philosophy as a historical monument in which the beginning of a thought can be found, but not the very thinking about the things taken into consideration. The aim of the research is to stir up the reflection about a problem which caused given state of things in the period at „end of philosophy“, through non-systematic approach to Aristotle’s terms. The review of Nietzsche’s claim that with the term of work “modern man” “overcomes” ancient era, directly refers to Aristotle’s term of leisure (σχολή). Using aporetic approach the term of leisure is traced through Metaphysics, Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. The paper finds difficulties in understanding leisure as simple free time by analyzing the relationship among the terms θεωρητικὸς βίος and εὐδαιμονία. In the framework of this relation (σχολή) is no longer shown as the absence of work and care, but as a discovery of the Being in its fullness. Theoretical life (θεωρητικὸς βίος) is the final purpose of a man and his attempts which are realized in the term for happiness (εὐδαιμονία) that corresponds to Aristotle’s notion of a man as a being that possesses logos, mind which understands and gathers of the Being. Thus, this paper does not excludes the term of virtue (ἀρετή), but looking at it from different angles shows that εὐδαιμονία is not the state of a modern man, no matter whether he posseses moral or intellectual values, because a modern man does not possess σχολή in Aristotle’s meaning and the fullness of the Being is not revealed to him.