In 1948, German philosopher Josef Pieper predicted that society was headed for a dystopia he called 'Total Work'. With most of us in 2017 working too long, missing social events, working on weekends, and egging on our older years just for the retirement, practical philosopher Andrew Taggart believes we have reached the verge of that dystopia. He describes the conditions that are tightening around us—our lives are scheduled around the needs of our jobs, our time with family and friends is subordinated to it (in a 5:2 ratio!), and our free time increasingly resembles work, in vocabulary and in action: we run errands, aim to have "productive" days, try to rest so that we are fresh for Monday—the start of another week. Taggart thinks Universal Basic Income is the ideological push we need to begin questioning how we can cut loose from our cultural obsession with work, and how we might live in a world without it. Are we human beings, or instruments of productivity? Has our intense focus on work become pathological?
For more, visit andrewjtaggart.com. -
Andrew J. Taggart is a practical philosopher and entrepreneur who teaches individuals and organizations how to inquire into the things that matter most. For several years, he has led a philosophy practice in which he speaks daily over Skype with entrepreneurs, business executives, artists, the ecologically minded, and seekers about the nature of a good life. He and those he speaks with have at least one common thought: “There must be more than this because this is not enough.” In 2009, he finished a Ph.D., left the academic life, and moved to New York City with the goal to return the fundamental question of “how to live” to people’s everyday lives. He feels that in its very being, philosophy is a pursuit whose final aim is to help all people to lead the most excellent human lives that they can: considered, aware, vibrantly alive. Andrew is a faculty member in Lougheed leadership at The Banff Centre in Canada, where he trains creative leaders, and at Kaos Pilots in Denmark, where he teaches social entrepreneurs and enterprising artists. He is the author of several books addressed to general readers, including The Art of Inquiry, Cultivating Discipline Lightly, The Good Life and Sustaining Life, and, most recently, Money Rules for Simple Living.