pieper in tune with the world

1. According to Josef Pieper, what is the context in which the concept of festivity must be discussed if we are to say anything significant?

2. According to Pieper, a festival can arise only out of the foundation of a life whose ordinary shape is given by what? Why is this the case? Explain, then, why not every "party" is a "festival" in Pieper's sense.

3. What does Pieper mean when he says that: "Not all activity, nor every kind of expenditure of effort and earning of money, deserves the name of work"? What is the only kind of work that can provide the soil in which festivity can flourish? Relate your answer to this question back to the previous question. What do you suppose would be Pieper's judgment about the contemporary "party" scene in American society?

4. Explain this aphorism Peiper quotes from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "The trick is not to arrange a festival, but to find people who can enjoy it."

5. What, for Pieper, is the relationship between love and joy? (For this, see the beginning of ch. 2.) Do you agree with his assessment?

6. Is it necessarily the case, according to Josef Pieper, that specific events such as birth, marriage, or homecoming will always be "festive"? (Compare Pieper's statement with your own experience of, for example, weddings. Have the weddings you've attended been "festive" in Pieper's sense? Have they been particularly joyous? Or not?)

7. According to Pieper, no single specific event can become the occasion for festive celebration unless – unless what?

8. Is it possible to be festive, to be joyful, in the face of the world's sufferings and the reality of death?

9. Please be able to explain the following statement made on p. 30: "To celebrate a festival means: to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as a whole."