Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity

Can inactivity be vital? How does one live in a world that mines even our emotions and personhood as a resource? Han is a philosopher for the 21st Century, and he makes a powerful case for the need for all of life and personhood to be centered on contemplation rather than action. I'll be thinking about the concepts in this little book for a very long while, and seeking to put them into practice.

Bought this book, but didn't read it yet. Something about the title just makes me kind of not want to. I do already know what it's about, though, so I'm sure Han would be okay with me not reading it.

Han's many works, all short and ponderous, can be insightful. I have read most of them in the past two years, and lectured on some of his ideas at the 2025 L'Abri conference in Rochester, MN. He is difficult to summarized, but he works within the critical theory tradition broadly, but without the animus toward religion that many of those thinkers evince. Han's critique of the effects of technology on society and self are often worthwhile and even memorable, putting him among the ranks of Jean Baudrillard, although he writes more clearly. Neil Postman developed his critique of image-based society and communication technologies more thoroughly, as did Jacques Ellul. To my knowledge, Han does not cite these authors in his works. In this book, Han tries to chart an alternative to "the burn out society" (the title of one of his books) of constant over exposure to communication technologies that demand we perform ourselves to death. The subtitle says it: "In praise of inactivity." However, Han has few intellectual resources to ground a meaningful sense of rest. In the last chapter, he draws on romantics poets and liberal theologians who speak vaguely of "the infinite" without specific content or meaning. It is as if Han is in search of a sabbath (he mentions it), but has neglected the Lord of the Sabbath, the only one who can give it objective meaning, value, and hope.

Byung-Chui Han offers a poetic, rigorous, philosophically meandering alternative to contemporary life, which admonishes the reader to severe his (non-gender universal) addiction to activity and embrace the freedom of inactivity. He argues that we have lost our humanity in relentless doing and must reclaim it by entering into fullness of life through stillness, contemplation, and romantic engagement with nature. He is challenging post-modern man to shift his thinking to enter a new paradigm where he lives from the inside out.

i bought this for a 22 year old who didn't graduate high school. They had no issues reading it, got into some philosophy rabbit holes online, turned into a Byung-Chul Han fan.

Book was supposed to be brand new. Looks like it is second hand.