From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!csus.edu!netcomsv!mork!kmc Thu Apr 30 15:21:58 EDT 1992
Article 5186 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: kmc@netcom.com (Kevin McCarty)
Subject: Re: Categories: bounded or graded?
Message-ID: <mt6j0nd.kmc@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 92 07:20:24 GMT
Organization: Netcom
References: <1992Apr14.143822.10246@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Apr15.010721.17700@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> <1992Apr15.081023.11118@husc3.harvard.edu>
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zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:

>In article <1992Apr15.010721.17700@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
>bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes: 

>BS:
>>  With Wittgenstein in mind, I ask:  what are the invariant features
>>that characterize a "game"?

>To cite Johan Huizinga, play is "a voluntary activity or occupation
>executed within certain limits of time and place, according to rules freely
>accepted but absolutely binding, having an aim in itself and accompanied by
>a feeling of tension, joy and the consciousness that it is ``different''
>from ``ordinary life''." ("Homo Ludens", Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, p.28)

Is this a serious definition of a game?  It looks as if it has a few large
soft spots in it.

What does "having an aim in itself" mean?  Are professional athletes
playing football, baseball, soccer and the like for a living failing
on this account to play a game?

The wording "consciousness that it is ``different'' from ``ordinary
life''" seems like a pretty large and ill-defined loophole, tantamount
to saying "feels like a game".  

Actors in the theater seem to fit this definition perfectly.  Is
putting on Shakespeare a game?

-- 
Kevin McCarty                   kmc@netcom.COM
                                {amdahl,claris}!netcom!kmc


