LEISURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION IN 17TH-CENTURY ENGLAND

The transvaluation whereby work replaced leisure as the center of livi ng emerged principally from the Protestant Reformation. Besides religi on, the experimental science of Francis Bacon also played an integral role in the changing relationship between work and leisure. The Purita n Rebellion and England's scientific revolution, both of which occurre d together in the middle of the 17th century, stressed themes that fav ored work while devaluing Aristotle's conception of leisure. Science i n 17th-century England, however, was mainly an amateur activity pursue d by gentlemen during their leisure. Their leisured condition was the result of class privilege based on Aristotelianism. This study describ es how Aristotle's idea of leisure was undermined by Puritan and Bacon ian ideals embedded in the belief systems of Protestant English gentle men who conducted experimental science in their leisure. It further re veals that play, although obscured by a labor ethic, was an important factor in their scientific endeavors.