The Liberal Arts Hobbies: A Neglected Subtype of Serious Leisure

Abstract Theory and research have overlooked a subtype of serious leisure referred to here as the liberal arts hobby, or the systematic and fervent pursuit during free time of knowledge for its own sake. People who take up such a hobby have as their primary goal the acquisition of a broad knowledge and understanding of, for example, one or more arts, sports, foods, languages, cultures, histories, sciences, philosophies, or literary traditions. A similar goal motivates the inveterate followers of current politics. These hobbyists look on the knowledge and understanding they acquire as ends in themselves rather than as background, or means, to involvement in another hobby or in an amateur activity. When compared with the other hobbies and the various amateur activities, the knowledge acquired is of primary rather than secondary importance. The proposition is introduced, explained, and elaborated that the free-time pursuit of a liberal art is both a distinct hobby and a distinct type of serious leisure.