0655 - Trivial Pastime or the Key to a Meaningful Life? Why Playing Games Can Help You Live Well

Course Description

Scrabble, Chess, Euchre, hockey, baseball, World of Warcraft, escape rooms… What do these activities all have in common? Well, we refer to all of them as games. But what is it that makes them games as opposed to other activities such as doing our taxes or building a fence for the backyard? In other words, can we give a definition that covers all the different activities that we refer to when use the word game?

The late Bernard Suits, who taught philosophy at the University of Waterloo from 1966 to 1994, proposed an influential definition of games in his book The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. He also provided arguments for why games are an important part of what philosophers from Aristotle to the present day have called “the good life.” His book, as well as his other writings on games and sports have given rise to a multitude of responses. Philosophers of games, philosophers of sport, and others who study games have proposed alternative accounts both of what games are and what their value is.

In this lecture we examine the question of what makes an activity a game and will look at what Suits and other philosophers have said about the value of games. All the philosophers we will discuss believe that games are good for us, but they disagree about how games make our lives better. Based on their work, I will offer up some reasons for why playing games helps us to live well.

Instructor

Dr. Gary Foster is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier. He is the author of Alienation and Identity in Romantic Love (Lexington Books, 2024) and editor of Desire, Love, and Identity: Philosophy of Sex and Love (Oxford University Press, 2017). Additionally, he has published numerous articles in scholarly journals dealing with the relationship between love and personal identity. Recently, he has switched his research (and teaching) focus to the philosophy of sport and games. His 2024 article “VAR and Flow in Soccer (Football): Changes to the Fan Experience,” was published in the journal Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.

Location

Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, Community Pavilion (101 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo, ON)

• Parking is free.
• Download the facility map (PDF) to find facilities and parking lots.

Notes

• Lecture Time :  130-300 pm
• Lecture Cost:  $16.00 + HST

• Participants must register before the day of the lecture. 
• Laurier’s online registration system accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Visa Debit, and MasterCard Debit.
• You will only be able to purchase 1 seat at the time of registration. If looking to register more than 1 person, each registrant will require their own account to complete the registration.
• Lectures are non-refundable

Contact

If you have any questions please email lifelonglearning@wlu.ca.