Play and aesthetics in ancient Greece / Stephen E. Kidd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kidd, Stephen E., 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato.

Aristotle.

Play--History.

Play.

Pleasure.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 234 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Summary:

What is art's relationship to play? Those interested in this question tend to look to modern philosophy for answers, but, as this book shows, the question was already debated in antiquity by luminaries like Plato and Aristotle. Over the course of eight chapters, this book contextualizes those debates, and demonstrates their significance for theoretical problems today. Topics include the ancient child psychology at the root of the ancient Greek word for 'play' (paidia), the numerous toys that have survived from antiquity, and the meaning of play's conceptual opposite, the 'serious' (spoudaios). What emerges is a concept of play markedly different from the one we have inherited from modernity. Play is not a certain set of activities which unleashes a certain feeling of pleasure; it is rather a certain feeling of pleasure that unleashes the activities we think of as 'play'. As such, it offers a new set of theoretical challenges.

Contents:

The pais of paizo: children, intoxication, and play in ancient psycho-physiology

Why Plato needs play

Plato's play and the tragic paradox

What do pleasure-objects do? : an inquiry into toys

Aristotle's demotion of play

Play vs. mimesis in Aristotle's aesthetics

Serious play as goal-oriented play

The value of serious things before and after death

Conclusions: toward a pleasure-model of play.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 May 2019).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-63204-1

1-108-58845-X

1-108-59091-8