The Philosophy of Play

Play is a vital component of the social life and well-being of both children and adults. This book examines the concept of play and considers a variety of the related philosophical issues. It also includes meta-analyses from a range of philosophers and theorists, as well as an exploration of some key applied ethical considerations.
The main objective of The Philosophy of Play is to provide a richer understanding of the concept and nature of play and its relation to human life and value, and to build disciplinary and paradigmatic bridges between scholars of philosophy and scholars of play. Including specific chapters dedicated to children and play, and exploring the work of key thinkers such as Plato, Sartre, Wittgenstein, Gadamer, Deleuze and Nietzsche, this book is invaluable reading for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in education, playwork, leisure studies, applied ethics or the philosophy of sport.

Emily Ryall is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. Her main area of expertise is in the philosophy of sport, in addition to an interest in broader ethical and conceptual issues. She is on the editorial board of the Journal for the Philosophy of Sport and has published work in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections as well as sole authored books. Wendy Russell is Senior Lecturer in Play and Playwork at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. She has over 35 years experience as a playworker, specifically in development, research, education and training. Her research interests focus on play, childhood, space and politics and she is particularly interested in the dialectics of adult involvement in children's play. Malcolm MacLean is Associate Dean (Quality and Standards) and teaches in the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. His research work explores cultural politics, sport as a form of body and movement culture and the political economy of knowledge production in contemporary higher education.

Introduction 1. A Pluralist Conception of Play 2. All the World's A Stage: Childhood and the Play of Being 3. Playing with Words: Further Comment on Suits' Definition 4. Playing Well: Wittgenstein's Language-Games and the Ethics of Discourse 5. Gadamer and the Game of Dialectic in Plato's Gorgias 6. Gadamer and the Game of Understanding: Dialogue-Play and Opening to the Ot 7. Language at Play. Games and the Linguistic Turn after Wittgenstein and Gadamer 8. Whoever Cannot Give, Also Receives Nothing: Nietzsche's Playful Spectator 9. Play and Being in Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness 10. Passion Play: Play, Free Will and the Sublime 11. Playing in a Deleuzian playground 12. 'We Sneak off to Play What we Want!' Bakhtin's Carnival and Children's Play 13. What's Play Got to Do with the Information Age? 14. Towards a Spatial Theory of Playwork: What Can Lefebvre Offer as a Response to Playwork's Inherent Contradictions? 15. To Play or to Parent? An Analysis of the Adult-Child Interaction in Make-Believe Play 16. Game Over: Calling Time on Kidult Accounts of Masculinity