Work

Sunday, September 6, 2009
First Aired:
Sunday, January 6, 2008

What Is It

Is work the curse of the working class? Or a human's best opportunity for happiness and meaning? What is work, and what is leisure? Are you what you do? And how does American society differ in its attitude towards work, and holidays, from others? John and Ken discuss these issues and more with Al Gini from Loyola University Chicago, author ofMy Job, My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual.This program wasrecorded liveat Centenary College in Shreveport, LA.

Listening Notes

我们对各种事情都进行哲学思考，但出于某种原因，我们似乎从不过多谈论工作。这是为什么呢?我们真的那么讨厌工作吗?我们当然不会因为缺乏哲学材料而保持沉默——我们为什么工作，工作在我们的生活中应该扮演什么角色，你的工作能告诉你如何思考，这些肯定是有道理的。毕竟，我们花了大量的时间工作——还有什么比这更有哲学意义呢?

作家、商业伦理学教授阿尔•吉尼(Al Gini)与约翰和肯一起帮助理清这些问题。似乎工作最值得注意的一点是几乎没有人喜欢它。事实上，最近的研究表明，绝大多数人对他们的工作不满意。这不仅仅意味着他们偶尔会觉得工作令人沮丧，或者希望自己能在加勒比海游弋——他们非常不喜欢自己的工作，而且非常不喜欢。

但是，为什么我们生活在一个很少有人喜欢自己工作的社会呢?显然，并不是所有的工作都是好的，有些人总是会被困在他们并不热衷的事情上——但同样的，情况需要像现在这样糟糕吗?为什么没有更多的人在工作中找到意义?问题是我们工作太多了吗?我们是否应该在像约翰这样的懒鬼和肯这样的工作狂之间寻找一个中间地带?如果我们每周只工作几个小时呢?

There’s also the question of perspective—how does our work influence our perceptions of the world around us? Do police officers see the world at its worst? Do doctors see the world as filled with maladies that must be cured? Do philosophers see confusion everywhere they look because of their line of work?
Why do we work? Aristotle thought that the purpose of work is to give us leisure time. But what if you love your work? Unlike most of the world, we have options in terms of what we do for a living—how should we choose? Should we just be happy to have jobs? When is it too late in life to choose a new job? Listen in to find out more about what these cogitators have to say!

  • Roving Philosophical Report(seek to 5:49): Zoe Corneli comes with interviews from a local shopping center. Why do people work? Is your work who you are? Or is work just something you can do so you can afford to be yourself in your free time?

Transcript

Comments(1)

nunya_bill's picture

nunya_bill

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 -- 11:22 PM

Every activity is a form of

每一项活动都是一种工作形式，许多人说这些活动是职业。举个例子，对于那些没有工作或被告知他们不以工作为生的人来说，他们实际上是在工作，有时比那些从事某些职业的人更努力。购买食品杂货，准备饭菜，打扫和整理……可以胜任“各种领域的工作或工作(保姆、看护者、家庭工人....甚至是预算分析师，因为这也是这些职责的一部分。一个人在冬天自己修剪草坪，自己铲雪……again, it’s a form of work ( lawn care, landscaping)
Making small talk with friends and family....if they are having issues one can be tossed into the role of a therapist. You see, in the end it is all work. Now, whether or not that work is satisfactory or compensated is a different story. People often conflate both working and producing money as the same thing and then in turn might use that to judge others based on what they do for a living. But again, there is a difference between work/ vocation and producing money. Some people work very hard, enjoy it or not enjoy it and make very little money, and some people are very good at producing money with very little effort or “work”