Free shipping on orders over $99
Vita Contemplativa

Vita Contemplativa

In Praise of Inactivity

by Byung-Chul Han
Paperback
Publication Date: 29/02/2024

Share This Book:

16%
OFF
RRP  $26.95

RRP means 'Recommended Retail Price' and is the price our supplier recommends to retailers that the product be offered for sale. It does not necessarily mean the product has been offered or sold at the RRP by us or anyone else.

$22.75
or 4 easy payments of $5.69 with
afterpay

In our busy and hurried lives, we are losing the ability to be inactive. Human existence becomes fully absorbed by activity – even leisure, treated as a respite from work, becomes part of the same logic.

Intense life today means first of all more performance or more consumption. We have forgotten that it is precisely inactivity, which does not produce anything, that represents an intense and radiant form of life.

For Byung-Chul Han, inactivity constitutes the human. Without moments of pause or hesitation, acting deteriorates into blind action and reaction. When life follows the rule of stimulus–response and need–satisfaction, it atrophies into pure survival: naked biological life. If we lose the ability to be inactive, we begin to resemble machines that simply function. True life begins when concern for survival, for the exigencies of mere life, ends. The ultimate purpose of all human endeavour is inactivity.

In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han shows that the current crisis in our society calls for a very different way of life: one based on the vita contemplative. He pleads for bringing our ceaseless activities to a stop and making room for the magic that happens in between. Life receives its radiance only from inactivity.

ISBN:
9781509558018
9781509558018
Category:
Philosophy
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
29-02-2024
Language:
English
Publisher:
Polity Press
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
128
Dimensions (mm):
208.3x137.2x7.6mm
Weight:
0.16kg
Byung-Chul Han

Byung-Chul Han is the author of more than 20 books including The Burnout Society, Saving Beauty and The Scent of Time.

This item is In Stock in our Sydney warehouse and should be sent from our warehouse within 1-2 working days.

Once sent we will send you a Shipping Notification which includes online tracking.

Please check the estimated delivery times below for your region, for after your order is despatched from our warehouse:

ACT Metro  2 working days

NSW Metro  2 working days

NSW Rural  2 - 3 working days

NSW Remote  2 - 5 working days

NT Metro  3 - 6 working days

NT Remote  4 - 10 working days

QLD Metro  2 - 4 working days

QLD Rural  2 - 5 working days

QLD Remote  2 - 7 working days

SA Metro  2 - 5 working days

SA Rural  3 - 6 working days

SA Remote  3 - 7 working days

TAS Metro  3 - 6 working days

TAS Rural  3 - 6 working days

VIC Metro  2 - 3 working days

VIC Rural  2 - 4 working days

VIC Remote  2 - 5 working days

WA Metro  3 - 6 working days

WA Rural  4 - 8 working days

WA Remote  4 - 12 working days

 

Express Post is available if ALL items in your Shopping Cart are listed as 'In Stock'.

Reviews

Be the first to review Vita Contemplativa.