This course is essentially an exploration of the philosophical and theological meaning of work. In order to illuminate the meaning of work, we ponder the philosophical roots of dominion (God’s command to “subdue the earth”) and of technē (the root of technique, technology). The first part of the course attempts to unfold the classical understanding of work, and of the human hand, beginning with the Jewish, Greek, and Roman conceptions and then following their integration and transformation in Christian culture through a metaphysics of creation. The second half of the course considers the radical changes that the nature and the practice of work undergo in modernity and above all in the twentieth century and seeks to form a judgment about the current state of the matter from a Catholic perspective.
Selected Texts
Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings.
Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture.
Matthew Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft.
A.E. Stallings, Hesiod, Works and Days.
David Ferry, The Georgics of Virgil.
Faculty
D.C. Schindler
Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology
Ph.D. Program Advisor
Dr. Schindler’s work is concerned above all with shedding light on contemporary cultural challenges and philosophical questions by drawing on the resources of the classical Christian tradition. His principal thematic focus is metaphysics and philosophical anthropology.
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