Alex Sager

At its core, philosophy of leisure is an investigation into part of the good life. As such, it is a branch of moral and political philosophy. Philosophy of leisure enquires into the ends that should be pursued for their own sake, the role of social institutions in supporting valuable ends, and the virtues people ought to cultivate to best avail themselves of their free time. This chapter examines the meaning of leisure, traces its philosophical development, and discusses its moral and political significance. The first section offers a definition of leisure and distinguishes it from related concepts. The second section briefly traces the historical development of the idea of leisure in the Western philosophical tradition. The third section turns to leisure’s ethical implications and the fourth section explores the politics surrounding leisure.

Normative reflection on the ethics of migration has tended to remain at the level of abstract principle with limited attention to the practice of immigration administration and enforcement. This paper explores the implications of this practice for an ethics of immigration with particular attention to the problem of bureaucratic domination. I contend that migration administration and enforcement cannot overcome bureaucratic domination because of the inherent vulnerability of migrant populations and the transnational enforcement of border controls by multiple public and private actors. The implication is that even if restrictive immigration policies are permissible in principle, the attempt to enforce them leads to injustices that make them ethically unacceptable in practice.