Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/08/04/Shop_Class_as_Soulcraft_Matthew_B_Crawford
Philosopher and mechanic Matthew Crawford defends trade work as more cognitively stimulating than society recognizes. He considers manual labor to be not only more satisfying to human nature than white-collar work, but often more creative and mentally taxing.
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Crawford left D.C. think-tanks and the Committee on Social Thought to open a motorcycle shop.
In this memoir-cum-manifesto, he suggests that knowledge work is ultimately unfulfilling, and recommends manual trades as a more engaging way to both think and do. – Politics and Prose
Matthew B. Crawford majored in physics as an undergraduate, then turned to political philosophy (Ph.D. Chicago). His writings for The New Atlantis bring the two concerns together, and consider how developments in the sciences influence our view of the human person.
Currently a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, he also runs a small business in Richmond. He has just completed a book about manual competence, entitled Shop Class as Soulcraft after the New Atlantis essay by the same name. The book reflects on the experience of building things and fixing things, and considers the problem of living concretely in an ever more abstract world.
The book was released by The Penguin Press on May 28, 2009.
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