By Graham Culbertson
The podcast currently has 10 episodes available.
Aris Politopoulos joins me to discuss David Graeber's essay "What's the Point if We Can't Have Fun?"
We also discuss Aaron Trammel's recent book Repairing Play, which you can find here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545273/repairing-play/
For more from Aris and to learn about his work at Leiden University, you can check out his appearance on my other podcast: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/23e2e876-b682-4df1-906e-77d15129dbe2/
Martin Roth, of the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, joins me to discuss Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga's 1938 study of play and culture. Martin and I discuss the way that Homo Ludens can be considered the first "game studies" book, but also all of the ways that it is more complicated and surprising than its reputation as a game studies classic attests.
Historian David Potter joins me to discuss the concept of agon, or competitive play, and how it animated everything in ancient Greek society from sports to education to politics to art. And Plato's The Republic, often considered the foundation of Western philosophy, was an attempt to end the agonistic nature of society.
Miguel Sicart, author of Playing Software, joins me for a playful, even anarchist discussion which was supposed to be about the work of Maria Lugones but ended up being about Lugones, Graeber, Almodóvar, Maradona, and much more.
You can find Miguel's work here: https://miguelsicart.net/
Thi Nguyen joins me to discuss The Grasshopper, a work which takes up Wittgenstein's challenge to define a game and does so in a very productive way. Thi and I discuss the Suitsian definition of a game, how it can redefine not just our sense of games but also the meaning of life, and what this definition of games means for our understanding of agency.
We conclude by discussing María Lugones' theory of play, which will be the subject of my next episode with Miguel Sicart.
You can find more from Thi here: https://objectionable.net/
Why do you feel anxious, according to Schopenhauer?
Excess energy!
What should you do about it?
Play a game!
Philosopher of games C. Thi Nguyen joins me to discuss his current work on the intersection of anarchism and games studies. The conversation was so much fun that I started this podcast to continue exploring this topic.
For more from Thi, here's his website: https://objectionable.net/
Jonne Arjoranta the of Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies joins me to talk about games and definitions in Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. You can find Jonne's articles on the topics below:
"Game Definitions - A Wittgensteinian Approach"
https://gamestudies.org/1401/articles/arjoranta
"How to Define Games and Why We Need to" - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40869-019-00080-6
How would you feel if you had to live life over and over again? Would it be like playing Slay the Spire? Or maybe Super Mario Bros?
This episode of How to Do Things with Games begins with Mary Midgley’s 1974 question: “Why do philosophers talk about games so much?” Well, why do they (she continues)? I’m not sure, but I’m sure there’s work that needs to be done on the philosophy of games, philosophical infrastructure that can, like plumbing, help ideas flow.
I also discuss the difference between analytic and continental philosophy, the way that philosophy itself is a game, and whether or not Ludwig Wittgenstein helps or hurts us to create some philosophical plumbing:
References:
The podcast currently has 10 episodes available.