The Philosophy Book

236

THE ROAD TO

HAPPINESS LIES

IN AN ORGANIZED

DIMINUTION

OF WORK

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872–1970)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Ethics

APPROACH

Analytic philosophy

BEFORE

1867 Karl Marx publishes the

first volume of Capital.

1905 In The Protestant Ethic

and the Spirit of Capitalism,

German sociologist Max

Weber argues that the

Protestant work ethic was

partly responsible for the

growth of capitalism.

AFTER

1990s Growth of the trend

of “downshifting”, promoting

fewer working hours.

2005 Tom Hodgkinson,

editor of the British magazine

The Idler, publishes his leisure-

praising book How To Be Idle.

2009 British philosopher Alain

de Botton explores our working

lives in The Pleasures and

Sorrows of Work.

T

he British philosopher

Bertrand Russell was no

stranger to hard work. His

collected writings fill countless

volumes; he was responsible for

some of the most important

developments in 20th-century

philosophy, including the founding

of the school of analytic philosophy;

and throughout his long life—he

died aged 97—he was a tireless

social activist. So why is this most

active of thinkers suggesting that

we should work less?

Russell’s essay In Praise of

Idleness was first published in

1932, in the middle of the Great