Chapter Attività lavorative e ozio intellettuale in Aristotele

Abstract

The contribution aims to examine the theme of the work in Aristotle, through a “Multifocal Approach” that takes into account two opposite scenarios (here called, respectively, "theoretical-conceptual frame" and "political-social frame"). This distinction starts from the identification of two interpretations with respect to the theme of work, a notion that, in the same Greek language, refers simultaneously, but in different senses - 1) to a "painful need" (since "work" is called πόνος, which means "fatigue", "suffering", connected with the Latin term "labor", from which derives, for example, the French “travailler”) but also 2) to an indispensable occasion of realization and fullness (calling into question another Greek term to say work, such as ἔργον, very important for Aristotle himself, which means, among other things, "opera", and which therefore indicates a task to be accomplished at best.