top of page
Liberal Arts.jpg

Non-utilitarian modes of human activity such as contemplation or philosophy.

It might be pointed out in that the Christian and Western conception of the contemplative life is closely linked to the Aristotelian notion of leisure. It is also to be observed that this is the source of the distinction between the artes liberales and the artes serviles, the liberal arts and servile work.

​

What are the liberal arts? In his commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, Aquinas gives this definition : "Only those arts are called liberal or free which are concerned with knowledge; those which are concerned with utilitarian ends that are attained through activity, however, are called servile."  

​

It is barely possible to think of "servile work" with any degree of accuracy without delimiting the sense with reference to the "liberal arts."

​

The liberal arts, then, include all forms of human activity which are an end in themselves; the servile arts are those which have an end beyond themselves, and more precisely an end which consists in a utilitarian result attainable in practice, a practicable result. 

- Josef Pieper

​

Leisure: The Basis of Culture

bottom of page