Leisure

Use in the book

Demodocus' opening request is tactful but insistent. He asks for a private word if Socrates has leisure and, if his business is not too pressing, asks him to make leisure for his sake. Socrates says he is already free and especially willing to accommodate him. Their initial cooperation is therefore unusually easy in comparison with the later uncertainty over accepting Theages as a companion.

The father proposes moving out of the way into the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios. This makes a public civic structure the setting for a relatively private consultation. “Private” describes the desired manner and audience of the conversation, not an assertion that they enter a privately owned house or achieve secrecy. No narrator identifies spectators, overhearers, or a subsequent change of location. The three named speakers sustain the discussion there as far as the text reports.

This staging suits the father's concern. He is approaching an acquaintance about a son's education and possible exposure to unsuitable company. Removing themselves from the immediate flow of public activity allows the concern to be developed through inquiry rather than announced as a public quarrel. Yet the subject steadily expands to rule of the city and the standing of its leaders. Privacy of consultation and public consequence of education are thus held together.

The sacred name of the setting also precedes Socrates' description of counsel as sacred and of Theages' name as befitting the sacred. These recurrences support attention to the dialogue's religious coloring. They do not establish that Zeus himself authorizes the advice or that the stoa's epithet predicts a philosophical doctrine of freedom. In particular, the later distinction between forced rule and willing subjects should not be treated as an explicit etymological exposition of Eleutherios.

Finally, Socrates' leisure is availability to speak, not proof that he can provide the educational benefit requested. The dialogue begins with time freely given and ends with association whose success cannot be guaranteed by giving more time. That distance between access and benefit is part of the opening's retrospective significance.

Places to read

1. 121aἰδιολογήσασθαι — Demodocus wants to speak privately
2. 121aεἰ σχολή; εἰ ἀσχολία — Availability and possible competing business frame the request
3. 121aποίησαι σχολήν; σχολάζων — Requested and already existing leisure
4. 121aτοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ἐλευθερίου … στοὰν — The proposed setting is the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios
5. 121aἐκποδὼν ἀποχωρήσωμεν — The speakers propose withdrawing out of the way

Translation in this edition

Note 2 locates the stoa on the western side of the Athenian Agora and compares Xenophon, Oeconomicus 7.1. Those are the edition's contextual identifications. Burnet prints ἰδιολογήσασθαι; Cobet's conjecture διαλογίσασθαι is recorded in the apparatus but is not the text translated. The distinction matters for an article about the requested privacy.

Being at leisure — σχολάζειν (scholazein)

σχολάζειν (scholazein)

Being at leisure. Socrates says that he happens already to be available. Attested: σχολάζων (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Busyness — ἀσχολία (ascholia)

ἀσχολία (ascholia)

Busyness. Possible competing occupation which Demodocus asks Socrates to set aside unless too great. Attested: ἀσχολία (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Converse privately — ἰδιολογεῖσθαι (idiologeisthai)

ἰδιολογεῖσθαι (idiologeisthai)

Converse privately. Demodocus requests a private discussion about his son, not an already established formal lesson. Attested: ἰδιολογήσασθαι (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

It is permitted — ἔξεστι (exesti)

ἔξεστι (exesti)

It is permitted. Socrates makes clear that the father may speak. Attested: ἔξεστιν (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Leisure — σχολή (scholē)

σχολή (scholē)

Leisure. Available time in which Socrates can hear the father's concern. Attested: σχολή (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Make time — ποιεῖν (poiein)

ποιεῖν (poiein)

Make time. The father's request that Socrates create an opportunity for conversation even if occupied. Attested: ποίησαι σχολήν (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Of freedom — ἐλευθέριος (eleutherios)

ἐλευθέριος (eleutherios)

Of freedom. The epithet of Zeus in the name of the stoa, not an explicit theory of political freedom. Attested: ἐλευθερίου (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Out of the way — ἐκποδών (ekpodōn)

ἐκποδών (ekpodōn)

Out of the way. Their movement seeks a less obstructed or exposed place for the private discussion. Attested: ἐκποδὼν (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Stoa — στοά (stoa)

στοά (stoa)

Stoa. The public colonnade into which the speakers propose to withdraw. Attested: στοὰν (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Withdraw — ἀποχωρεῖν (apochōrein)

ἀποχωρεῖν (apochōrein)

Withdraw. The proposed joint movement into the stoa. Attested: ἀποχωρήσωμεν (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Zeus — Ζεύς (Zeus)

Ζεύς (Zeus)

Zeus. The god whose named stoa is proposed as the setting. Attested: Διὸς (121a). Leisure, privacy, and the stoa.

Make leisure for my sake (contextual phrase)

121a: ἐμοῦ ἕνεκα ποίησαι σχολήν. “Make leisure … for my sake.” Poieisthai scholēn here concerns making oneself available. Demodocus acknowledges possible busyness but appeals to the personal relationship. Socrates replies that he already happens to be free. The exchange establishes a setting for careful counsel; it does not announce a general doctrine that leisure guarantees wisdom. See Leisure and private conversation.

Use in the book

Attention to events, history, telling and remembering is said to arise from rest and leisure; the next short claim assigns arts to cities. The poetic formulation then compares excellent lines to impromptus made at leisure: peaceful reverie can issue in a sudden result. The soul-in-harmony fragment includes leisure beside business and study, rather than making it the only setting for inward life.

Places to read

1. I, p. 91, entry 8, ¶1Leisure supports history, narration and memory.
2. I, p. 309, entry 4, ¶2Sudden verse can emerge from leisurely reverie.
3. II, p. 557, entry 8, ¶1Leisure belongs beside business and study within harmony.

Translation in this edition

The English translation retains the apparent paradox of leisurely impromptus that arrive all at once. It preserves the bosom image and the repeated emergence from reverie. The plural loisirs in the broad harmony fragment becomes ordinary English leisure without creating a new category of recreational activities.

Affairs

French: affaire.

Affaires are called a serious game in one fragment. In another, a people’s flourishing affairs coexist with poor tranquility and a willingness to pay dearly for riches. The English translation preserves the unnamed people and the counterfactual loss of commerce. These are worldly concerns, not necessarily a modern occupation or company.

Places to read: II, p. 509, entry 8, ¶1; I, p. 462, entry 6, ¶1.

Use in the book

Mon cœur mis à nu LV defines the superior man as one of leisure and general education rather than a specialist. The short wish ‘To be rich and love work’ imagines independence from necessity joined to chosen effort. It is not a rejection of all sustained activity.

Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXII supplies the autobiographical reckoning missing from that ideal. Baudelaire says leisure has helped him grow and harmed him greatly. The balanced phrases separate financial humiliation from gains in sensitivity, meditation, and dandyism. Neither side is cancelled by the other: the benefit does not pay the creditor, and the debt does not prove the inward benefit imaginary.

The later commands to work urgently are therefore more complex than conversion from a wholly worthless past. They seek an activity that can preserve cultivated powers while making care and repayment possible. The insult piocheurs attacks other writers' supposedly ignorant toil, yet the daily writing regimen risks looking mechanically similar from outside. Its difference must lie in the quality and ends of attention, a distinction the notebook repeatedly demands but cannot guarantee.

Places to read

1. Mon cœur mis à nu LVÊtre riche et aimer le travail. — The desired combination separates chosen work from economic compulsion.
2. Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXIIC’est par le loisir que j’ai, en partie, grandi. — The personal account claims real cultivation.
3. Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXIIle loisir, sans fortune, augmente les dettes — Material limits qualify the ideal from within.
4. Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXIIde vils piocheurs très ignorants. — The rival model of labour is attacked as degrading drudgery.

Translation in this edition

‘Leisure’ preserves the neutral possibility of cultivated time; ‘idleness’ throughout would prejudge the argument. ‘Drudges’ renders piocheurs contemptuously, while note 762 explains its connection to strenuous digging and assiduous labour. ‘Fortune’ is wealth in this context, not merely luck. The careful division of gains and losses is more important than a blanket defence of inactivity.

Use in the book

Leisure names freedom for a kind of activity rather than sheer inactivity. In the dedication Ficino credits Lorenzo's beneficence with providing the leisure to philosophize. In IV.2.11, celestial soul's middle faculty is free from bodily labor because the lowest power can govern its nearly needless body; reason can therefore become stable in mind. Human reason is contrasted with this freedom because bodily administration occupies it. The two uses connect intellectual availability with release from competing demands without equating human leisure with celestial life.

In the dedication, leisure is the beneficial condition made possible by Lorenzo’s support. In the argument above soul, passing from otium to act is a sign of incomplete actuality and dependence on a higher source. The first use praises freedom for philosophy; the second identifies a state to be exceeded in an ontological comparison. Ficino does not thereby condemn scholarly leisure as metaphysical defect.

Further passage references. Proem.11; IV.2.11

Proem.11. Beneficence enables philosophical leisure I.5.4. Inactivity is contrasted with full and perpetual act

Places to read

1. Proem.11Lorenzo’s beneficence is credited with making philosophical work possible
2. IV.2.11Celestial reason’s release from bodily administration permits stability in mind

Translation in this edition

Proem.11’s “leisure” and IV.2.11’s “free from bodily labor” render the same otium family in different constructions. Human patronage and celestial psychic organization are distinct contexts; neither warrants treating leisure as simply doing nothing.

The translation’s shift from “leisure” to “inactivity” is necessary, not inconsistent. An English-only reader can use the Latin register to see the common word without losing its contextual difference.

otium

otium. Printed forms: otio; otium.

Leisure, or inactivity, according to context. The dedication praises leisure enabling philosophy; the later ascent contrasts inactivity with perpetual act. One English rendering would obscure the change. References: Proem.11, I.5.4. See Leisure.

otium / administratio

otium / administratio. Printed forms: administratione; otium.

Freedom from bodily work; the task of governing a body. Celestial reason can rest in mind, whereas human reason is burdened by the needy body's administration. References: IV.2.11. See Leisure.