Case Study Discussion Worksheet #1
Leisure Ideals Then and Now
Name: ______________________________________________
Instructions: Read the case study "Super Bowl Frenzy" (located on page 23 in the text) and the supplemental reading "Elements of the Leisure Ideal." Then complete Part One of the worksheet prior to class on September 6. Bring the worksheet with you to class on Thursday, September 6. You will turn in Part One at the start of class. If you are not present for class on Thursday, September 6, the maximum points that you may earn for this assignment is 3.5 points for Part One (if it is brought in to my office prior to September 6).
Part One: (complete before September 6 class)
1. List those words and/or concepts you had difficulty in understanding from either/both of the readings. (Do not leave blank.) (.5pt)
2. How do you react to the case study? Do you think it is plausible: Why or why not? (1 pt)
3. In your opinion, are there kernels of truth in this case study in terms of typical leisure pursuits in the United States now? What clues do you have from this year’s Super Bowl? (1 pt)
4. From the supplemental reading, in your own words and in one sentence each, summarize the meanings of the elements of ideal leisure as understood by the ancient Greeks:
a. Culture (.25 pt):
b. Free will (.25 pt):
c. Excellence & virtue (.25 pt):
d. Civil society (.25 pt):
(Note: Please cut above this line....you will turn in Part One at the beginning of class and will use Parts Two and Three during class discussion)
Name: ______________________________________________
Part Two: (Complete during class discussion on September 6)
5. In lecture this week (and in the text) we explored the ancient Roman period and its use of leisure as a spectacle--large-scale entertainment to control a large middle class. Brainstorm with your group and list at least five (5) parallels between the ancient Roman expression of leisure and today’s. (1 pt)
Ex. Romans U.S. Today One-on-one combat................................ Boxing, wrestling
6. In lecture this week (and in the text) we explored the ancient Greek period and its understanding of leisure as a way to elaborate and elevate a society. Brainstorm with your group and list at least five (5) parallels between the ancient Greek beliefs of leisure and today’s. (1 pt)
Ex. Romans U.S. Today Olympics.................................................. Olympics
7. Which is better? Would your group prefer to have lived in ancient Greek or Roman times in terms of leisure’s meaning? Write your group’s decision and reasons why here: (1 pt)
8. If your group could change things about today’s leisure meanings, what would they be and why? (.5 pt)
Part Three: (completed after your group discussion)
9. Summarize the main areas of group agreement and group difference for the Part Two questions. (1 pt)
10. What else about the case study and the supplemental reading did your group discuss today? What were your group’s conclusions? (1 pt)
11. Summarize the impact of this discussion on your own independent views about the meaning of leisure today. (1 pt)
ELEMENTS OF THE LEISURE IDEAL
Article
AThe life of leisure,complex @ as de Grazia noted (1962:21), Awas the only fit life for a Greek.@ But leisure was a very idea or, more accurately, ideal. Time is a necessary element for the elaboration and elevation of a culture. But time is not enough. Intellectual ferment, brought on by the necessity of mythological or metaphysical explanations of phenomena, is another element. Man was full of wonder about the world and the world was wonderful. A third element, more characteristic of ancient Greece than perhaps any other culture, was pursuit of an ideal. Leisure, as understood and used by early Greek philosophers, can only be understood in light of the ideals of Greek culture.
Culture
Their word for culture as paideia. The word paidos meant boy or child and a variant of that word, pedo, forms the root of our word pedagogy, the art and science of teaching. In addition to culture, then, paideia also referred to the content and process of education. To the ancient Greeks, education was the ultimate justification of human life and human communities. As Jaeger argued (1939:xii-xvii), education is just as instinctive as reproduction: education assures the continuation of culture just as reproduction assures continuation of the species. The Greeks set out to produce, via education, a higher order of man. Paideia, then, also referred to self-improvement and was considered the force which protected the good man and made him secure. Finally, paideia was used to indicate the fulfillment of divine promise. Education referred to the deliberate molding of character in accord with an ideal. And the Greek word for leisure, schole, was the origin of the English word, school.
Free Will
The second matter essential to understanding the ideal of culture and of leisure was the belief that the soul included free will. That is to say, we are free to make choices. The symbol of the followers of Pythagorus was Y, indicating a choice of paths to follow. The ideal of paideia was founded on the belief that men can make choices. And the whole purpose of knowledge was to enable a person to make the right ones.
Excellence and Virtue
The ideal of Greek culture was expressed by the word arete, a word frequently translated as virtue. Originally, the word was used to convey heroic valor and evolved to mean nobility in thought and deed. Sometimes arete is translated as excellence; excellence in all things but particularly excellence of the soul. Virtue, then, is equated with excellence of the soul and thus the fulfillment of the divine purpose.
The great emphasis on education and learning is important not only for the preservation and transmission of culture but also for virtue and excellence of the soul. Unlike many religions, the Greeks did not consider man to be evil. In fact, they thought of man as simply a part of nature in which everything had its place. Natural justice as they viewed it (and as the origin of our notion of natural law) was that everything had its proper place, role and function. Justice was lacking when something exceeded its proper bounds and thus created disorder, whether in the universe or the community of man. At the temple at Delphi, along with the inscription "Know Thyself", was the inscription, "Nothing in Excess".
Man sinned when he exceeded the bounds of his natural place. But that was not caused by his evil nature, according to Greek philosophers. Man sinned because he was ignorant, and that can be avoided by a proper education. With knowledge comes virtue.
Civil Society
Two other matters are important to understanding the ideal of Greek culture and the leisure ideal within it. As was briefly alluded to earlier, the Greeks believed that the natural life of man was collective; it was life in the community. Their ideal was the perfection of civil life and political life, that is, the perfection of governance of life in the city-state. The proper life is that of a good citizen. Care was taken for the full development of individual character because that resulted in the character of the community. They fostered individual development not as an end in itself but as the essential means to collective social and political development of the city-state.
....from The Evolution of Leisure: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives, by T. L. Goodale & G. C. Godbey, 1988.