What Work is Really For

Source: Gary Gutting
Affiliation: University of Notre Dame, New York Times Contributor

In this essay, Professor Gary Gutting (who taught at the University of Notre Dame until 2019) approaches the question of what makes work good or bad from an Aristotelian angle. Like Aristotle, Gutting thinks that we can define excellence for some activity (e.g. work) only after we've determined the purpose of that thing. In a capitalist society like our own, Gutting thinks, asking this question quickly reveals complications (and perhaps contradictions) in the way we think about work and the role it plays in our lives.

Keywords: Aristotle , Hierarchies of Work , Meaning of Work , Philosophy , Purpose