The Importance of Hobbies

"We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may live in peace." (Aristotle Bk. VII Ch. 13-17) Although everyone has different hobbies we still all agree that hobbies are an important piece of our lives. I have many hobbies. I couldn't imagine a life without some of the things I do. It seems like they are not just activities that I do because I'm bored but they are also ways that I interpret my happiness into physical activities. When I am sad I will do one of my hobbies and it will make me feel better. First let me define what a hobby is.

    To me a hobby is something we do for ourselves to create an ultimate good that brings us happiness. My favorite definition for hobbies comes from Aristotle when he says "If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing is us." (Aristotle Bk. X Ch. 6-8) Even though Aristotle was not alive during the time the word "hobby" was used he still had a good idea of it. He talks about "Eudaimonia" which is an idea he came up with and wrote about in Nicomachean Ethics. Eudaimonia is the idea that we search for an ultimate good that brings us happiness. I believe this relates to hobbies because the reason we have hobbies is to bring us happiness. 

    Now that we have defined what a hobby is let's talk about why we have hobbies. We could simplify this question by saying something along the lines of: "We have hobbies to bring us an ultimate good." That does not fully answer the question, that just takes our definition and puts it into words we can use to answer a question. To fully answer the question of why we have hobbies we must first find all the types of "good" that hobbies bring us.

    First off hobbies can bring us happiness (or joy). For example one of my many hobbies (I will talk about all of them later) is climbing as many of you may already know. I find joy in climbing. When I am sad I can go rock climbing and will feel better, but this does not mean that is the soul thing that makes this hobby a hobby. We can also find discipline in our hobbies. Climbing shows me discipline because it inspires me to work out, lose weight, eat healthy, and train harder in general. Just because it brings me joy does not mean it can't also be something that I use as discipline. I can't climb at the time of writing this because of a finger injury I talked about in an earlier blog. Since I can not climb this means the joy part of it is gone. I can still train but I can not climb which completely removes the idea of the joy of it.

   I have many different hobbies. If I did not have all the hobbies my life would be absolute misery. Maybe others don't feel that same way, but I do because I need something to do. My main hobby is climbing. At the moment, as stated earlier, I can not find joy in climbing. This means I must find another hobby to bring me joy. Luckily because I have found so many hobbies throughout my life, I can easily pick up an intermediate hobby. The hobby I have picked up is biking. I bike when I want to climb now because that is what brings me joy.

    Hobbies are the base of joy for me and many other individuals. Without hobbies a lot of people will live in misery. Although I know there are people that do not need hobbies, I still find it hard that they can live without hobbies. Thank you for reading.

B. Smith

October 7, 2025