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Unity of Play: Diversity of Games

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Roger Caillois
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Extract

So varied and complex is the world of games that there are many ways in which a study of it can be approached. Psychology, sociology, anecdotal history, pedagogy, and mathematics all share a domain whose unity ends by ceasing any longer to be perceptible. Works like Homo ludens by Huizinga, Jeu de l'enfant by Jean Chateau, and Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by J. von Neumann and O. Morgenstern are not addressed to the same readers, nor do they appear to deal with the same subject. Ultimately, this question arises: How much does one profit from the facilities or contingencies of vocabulary by continuing to act as though such different and almost incompatible inquiries are fundamentally concerned with a same specific activity? It is doubtful whether common characteristics permit one to define this specific activity and consequently whether it can legitimately constitute the object of a comprehensive study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 5 , Issue 19 , September 1957 , pp. 92 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © 1957 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1. Hirn (according to Chambers and Lady Gomme).

2. Le Réel et l'imaginaire dan le jeu de l'enfant (2d ed.; Paris, 1955); Le Jeu de l'enfant: Intro duction à la pédagogie (rev. ed.; Paris, 1955).

3. Throwing-stones are not included in Chateau's works; perhaps he confiscated them in stead of observing the psychology of the manner in which they are handled. Nor are the children studied by Chateau familiar with croquet or kites, for these require both space and accessories and do not serve as a means of disguise. Once again they were observed only on school playgrounds.

4. Le Jeu le l'enfant, pp. 18-22.

5. I will cite but one example: the popularity of miniature lotteries seen near schools and in the bakeries that are available to pupils when they come out of class. At varying prices, the children draw lots which include the winning number; it is good for a piece of cake or candy. Needless to say, the tradesman waits until the last minute to add to the lots the one that wins the big prize-an enticing sweet.

6. Pour en faire des hommes, studies on play and language among socially maladjusted chil dren (Paris: S.A.B.R.I., 1956), pp. 15-75.

7. Cf. Diogenes, No. 12 (Fall, 1955), pp. 72-88.

8. I am giving examples cited in the final summary (pp. 386-87). On the other hand, in the corresponding chapter (pp. 194-217) the author uses the two meanings of the word "trans port" (bewildered behavior and temper) principally to study the disorders that excessive enthusiasm, passion, intensity, or mere acceleration in the tempo produces during the course of play. The game ends in disorganization. Thus, while analysis defines a modality of play or rather a danger which, in certain instances, threatens it, it in no way tends to determine a specific category of games.

9. J. von Neumann and O. Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Prince ton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 1944); Claude Berge, Théorie des jeux alternatifs (Paris, 1952).

10. Claude Berge.

11. A. Prost, "Jeux dans le monde noir," Le Monde noir (Nos. 8-9 of Présence africaine), pp. 241-48.

12. It is generally acknowledged, although it has not been proved, that the advantage of playing first is a real one.

13. This is what emerges with a good deal of evidence from the parable of Jorge Luis Borgès entitled "La Loterie de Babylone," in Fictions, French trans. (Paris, 1951), pp. 82-93.

14. Simone Delarozière and Gertrude Luc, "Une Forme peu connue de l'expression artistique africaine: L'Abbia," Etudes camerounaises, Nos. 49-50 (September-December, 1955), pp. 3-52. Similarly, in the Sudan, in the S'onraï country, where little shells are used both as dice and as money; each player throws four of them, and, if they all fall on the same side, he wins 2,500. Fortunes, lands, and wives are gambled (cf. A. Prost, "Jeux etjouets," Le Monde noir [Nos. 8-9 of Présence africaine], p. 245).

15. The same symbols are to be found in a game of cards played in Mexico for money, the principle of which is similar to lotto.

16. Rafael Roche, La Policia y sus misterios en Cuba (Havana, 1914), pp. 287-93.

17. From a communication of Lydia Cabrera's.

18. Roche, op. cit., p. 293.

19. From a communication of Alejo Carpentier's and documents which he provided.

20. I have described this game and analyzed its economic repercussions in my article, "Économie quotidienne et jeux de hasard en Amérique ibérique," Quatre essais de sociologie contemporaine (Paris, 1951), pp. 27-46.