A Philosophical Happy Hour on the possibility of festivity in a darkened world, including its intimate relationship to the capacity for contemplation.
Do you know how to have a good time? What does that even mean? For many people, no doubt, it entails some combination of entertainment, camaraderie, joking, laughing, imbibing, and eating. But more fundamentally, and less well-known—at least, so it seems to me—one must have the proper disposition. Too few of us, today, do. Thus, the good times we have are not really good times.
In his insightful little book, In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity, Josef Pieper expounds on why this is. Surprisingly, he claims, we are not today truly festive because we are not today truly contemplative. By this, he does not mean we must be silent and thoughtful as monks in prayer, but that we must, rather, be receptive to the reality of the world as it is in itself. Without such a habit, nothing shows itself worth celebrating. Festivity becomes mere carnal catharsis.
Can we, instead, reclaim the proper spirit of festivity? Can we learn to see what deserves celebration? What is the contemplation that supposedly allows us to be festive? Pieper writes:
It means a relaxing of the strenuous fixation of the eye on the given frame of reference, without which no utilitarian act is accomplished. Instead, the field of vision widens, concern for success or failure of an act falls away, and the soul turns to its infinite object; it becomes aware of the illimitable horizon of reality as a whole.
Join us this final Philosophical Happy Hour of 2024 as we read one short chapter from Pieper’s book and discuss how we might ourselves best be festive in the Christmas season!
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Come join us for drinks (adult or otherwise) and a meaningful conversation. Open to the public! Held every Wednesday from 5:45–7:15pm ET.
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