A life bound only to wealth production and accumulation is small and unrealized

Evidence

The specific content of Aristotle’s binary is contestable, especially in its conjoining of work and servitude, on the one hand, and of freedom with aristocratic leisure, on the other. Yet the point is sustainable beyond these challenges and can be made into a sharp critique of a neoliberal table of values. Human life wholly bound to the production of wealth, whether laboring to produce it or hovering over its accumulation, is small and unrealized. The same is true of human life that does not develop creative or intellectual capacities and does not seek to govern its own affairs. A liberal arts education, whatever its aporias and occlusions consequent to its class basis (and its markedly raced and gendered historical unfolding and content), is the most comprehensive affirmation of this truth contained in Western history. The proffering of this education to broad swaths of the population thus includes them in the projects of humanism and democratic governance so long reserved for the few. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 382

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the normative content of the good life against a ‘neoliberal table of values.’
• XREF: connects to: A life that only maintains itself is indistinguishable from vegetation; Life finds only illusory goals and ultimate disappointment when confined to itself — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 845; Economic value arises only through sacrifice and exchange — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 245 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A life that only maintains itself is indistinguishable from vegetation #corroborates (0.82)
• Life finds only illusory goals and ultimate disappointment when confined to itself #corroborates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 845
• Economic value arises only through sacrifice and exchange #expands (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 245