Philosophy and Play : On Realities, Rules, and What Comes Next / Matthew R. McLennan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McLennan, Matthew R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Play (Philosophy).

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2026.

System Details:

text file rdaft

Summary:

Is philosophy a playful pursuit? This book’s central argument is that playfulness is an essential quality of philosophical practice, and that there is something essentially philosophical about play. Ways of doing philosophy well invariably require the same wonder, hope, co-operation and positive freedom that define healthy modes of play. Matthew McLennan explores this intrinsic connection in the way that philosophy and play shed light upon one another through three core concepts: the realities of play define what it is and how it manifests; the rules of play determine how it functions; the ‘what comes next’ of play depends on what we want or hope to find in it. Together, these meditations explain how both play and philosophy are essentially oriented towards the indefinite, the infinite and the possible. Working across disciplinary boundaries and calling on an eclectic range of thinkers, this paradigm-shifting approach redefines how we understand the doing of philosophy and how we perceive the traditions that underpin it.

Contents:

Introduction: Vulnerable Militancy, Imaginative Play 1. Realities, Rules, and What Comes Next 2. Excursus: Thinking, Playing, with Others Part One: Realities - The What of Play 3. Child Development: Playing and Reality Revisited 4. Provisional Ontologies: Play beyond Childhood 5. Excursus: River Pickles, or: American Yokai and Multinaturalism Part Two: Rules - The How of Play 6. Fitting and Guiding 7. Searching 8. Bending, Subverting, and Changing the Game 9. Excursus: Tomahtoes on Bread, or: A Game in Search of, and running from, its own Rules Part Three: What Comes Next - Desire, Hope, and Fear in Play 10. Affects of Linking: Desire, Hope, and Fear 11. Situating and Repairing Linking 12. Excursus: The Improvisor’s stage is never Neutral Conclusion: Philosophy Militant, Vulnerable, and Playful

ISBN:

9781350469075

OCLC:

1592688795