Work is one of the most universal features of human life.

Often associated with tedium and boredom, it conflicts with the things we would otherwise love to do. Thinking of work primarily as a burden - an activity we would rather be without - goes back at least as far as ancient Greece, whose philosophers generally regarded work as a terrible curse. Yet research shows that it prolongs life and is generally good for people's physical and mental health. Our attitudes toward work have changed significantly in the last decades and increased recognition of it as a crucial source of meaning and social identity has led to increased demands for opportunities to find meaning and self-realization in the workplace. Lars Svendsen argues that we need to complete this reorientation of our feelings about work and collapse the differences between leisure and work. We must think of work not only as productive but as recreative - in other words, much more like leisure. Work? Are you serious? "Contrary to popular claims," Svendsen writes, "we actually work less than ever before, and the work we do is even beneficial for our physical and mental health." But that "even" is a sign of forcing, an admission that the existence of some healthy jobs cannot be used to generalise all contemporary work. Svendsen knows this: he gave up a job as a sports reporter in order to go back to cleaning in a factory, because he found the latter more satisfying. He recommends that we "commit ourselves to work" rather than treating it as merely instrumental, while remembering that it is only "one source of meaning among others". Svendsen's constant friends are Plato and Aristotle and the TV series The Office. He has most fun with an account of management and Taylorism and manuals of corporate religion. There is a horrific new paradigm, apparently, of the "zero-drag" employee, sans family or long commute, "who can put the needs of the company at the very top of his or her list of priorities". The antidote to that is Morrissey: "I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now." Lars Svendsen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lars Svendsen in 2012. Lars Fredrik Hndler Svendsen (born 16 September 1970) is a Norwegian philosopher.

He is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of several books, including A Philosophy of Boredom (2005), Fashion: a Philosophy (2006), A Philosophy of Fear (2008), and Work (2008). His books have been translated into 22 languages.[1] [edit]Bibliography

2005: A Philosophy of Boredom 2006: Fashion: A Philosophy 2008: A Philosophy of Fear 2008: Work 2010: A Philosophy of Evil Dalkey Archive Press

[edit]References 1. ^ "A Philosophy of Evil (Lars Svendsen)". Dalkeyarchive.com. Retrieved 2010-09-11. [edit]External links

Review of "A Philosophy of Evil" in Financial Times Review of "A Philosophy of Fear" in Times Higher Education Review of "A Philosophy of Boredom" in The Times Review of "A Philosophy of Boredom" in Denver Post Review of Lars Fr. H. Svendsen's "Fashion - a philosophy" in Hint Fashion Magazine This biographical article about a Norwegian academic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.