Description
Book SynopsisIn 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.’
Trade ReviewLike Erasmus's
Praise of Folly and Diderot's
Rameau's Nephew, Suits's
The Grasshopper sparkles with wit and fun; and outranks those wonderful works in clear, firm philosophical conclusions. Defying certain discouragements, Suits constructs an illuminating definition of games, which he defends in lively dialogues, amusing parables, and cascades of subtle analytical distinctions. That is achievement enough to make a new classic in the history of philosophy. Suits offers more: an application of his definition in a discussion of how much we may have to rely on games—deliberately using relatively inefficient means to reach freely stipulated goals—if life is to continue to have meaning. We may be able to regain thereby the meaning lost as advances in technology enable us to escape one by one the tasks that necessity used to impose on humankind." - David Braybrooke, Dalhousie University / The University of Texas at Austin
"
The Grasshopper is an amazing book. Philosophically profound, yet genuinely funny. While primarily an articulation and defense of a highly plausible definition of games (and we all know what Wittgenstein said about that), it also manages to raise some of the deepest and most challenging questions about the meaning of life. All in the form of dialogues between an insect and his disciples! There is simply nothing else like it." - Shelly Kagan, Yale University
"Philosophers are not generally known for fine writing, but once in a generation or two a book appears out of nowhere, unclassifiable, inspired, amazing, mesmerizing, wonderful, classic…" -
Philosophy and LiteratureTable of Contents
- 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
