The Grasshopper

Games, Life and Utopia
Third Auflage
ISBN: 978-1-55481-215-8
Verlag: Broadview Press Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 262 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 342 g

In the mid twentieth century the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously asserted that games are indefinable; there are no common threads that link them all. ""Nonsense,"" said the sensible Bernard Suits: ""playing a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."" The short book Suits wrote demonstrating precisely that is as playful as it is insightful, as stimulating as it is delightful. Through the jocular voice of Aesop's Grasshopper, a ""shiftless but thoughtful practitioner of applied entomology"", Suits not only argues that games can be meaningfully defined; he also suggests that playing games is a central part of the ideal of human existence and so games belong at the heart of any vision of Utopia.

This new edition of The Grasshopper includes illustrations from Frank Newfeld created for the book's original publication, as well as an introduction by Thomas Hurka and a new appendix on the meaning of 'play.'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Suits, Bernard

Weitere Mitwirkende

Newfeld, Frank

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction by Thomas Hurka
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- The Players
- One: Death of the Grasshopper
- Two: Disciples
- Three: Construction of a Definition
- Four: Triflers, Cheats, and Spoilsports
- Five: Taking the Long Way Home
- Six: Ivan and Abdul
- Seven: Games and Paradox
- Eight: Mountain Climbing
- Nine: Reverse English
- Ten: The Remarkable Career of Porphyryo Sneak
- Eleven: The Case History of Bartholomew Drag
- Twelve: Open Games
- Thirteen: Amateurs, Professionals, and Games People Play
- Fourteen: Resurrection
- Fifteen: Resolution
- Appendix 1: The Fool on the Hill
- Appendix 2: Wittgenstein in the Meadow
- Appendix 3: Words on Play

Über Autor(innen)

The late Bernard Suits was Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo.

Thomas Hurka is a Canadian philosopher who serves as the Jackman Distinguished Chair in Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto.