The Philosophical Case for a Four-Day Workweek
Philosopher Jason Read discusses his new book on the politics of work, in which he draws insights from Marx, Spinoza, and elements of popular culture to tackle an urgent question: Why do people fight for their servitude as if it were their salvation?
In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes published an essay in which he predicted that, by 2030, the average workweek would be a mere fifteen hours. Today, the people are working longer and harder just to meet their basic needs, and people are looking to “hustle culture” rather than politics for solutions.
What explains our perverse attachment to work even as its material rewards decline? This is the question that philosopher Jason Read set out to answer in his new book The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work, published by Verso Books in March.
Read collapses the traditional distinction between work and ideology, instead arguing that work always plays a role in shaping our political and ethical views of the world. Blending philosophy with popular culture, with references to Fight Club, Breaking Bad, and more, The Double Shift is an attempt to answer what Baruch Spinoza saw as the ultimate question of political philosophy: Why do people fight for their servitude as if it were their salvation?
