Work is psychologically simply
an activity which consciously includes regard for consequences as
a part of itself; it becomes constrained labor when the
consequences are outside of the activity as an end to which
activity is merely a means. Work which remains permeated with
the play attitude is art -- in quality if not in conventional
designation.
Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History
1. Extension of Meaning of Primary Activities. Nothing is more
striking than the difference between an activity as merely
physical and the wealth of meanings which the same activity
may assume. From the outside, an astronomer gazing through a
telescope is like a small boy looking through the same tube. In
each case, there is an arrangement of glass and metal, an eye,
and a little speck of light in the distance. Yet at a critical
moment, the activity of an astronomer might be concerned with the
birth of a world, and have whatever is known about the starry
heavens as its significant content. Physically speaking, what
man has effected on this globe in his progress from savagery is a
mere scratch on its surface, not perceptible at a distance which
is slight in comparison with the reaches even of the solar
system. Yet in meaning what has been accomplished measures just
the difference of civilization from savagery. Although the
activities, physically viewed, have changed somewhat, this change
is slight in comparison with the development of the meanings
attaching to the activities.
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