Play and Seriousness: Plato and Aristotle
Keywords:
Adult, Aristotle, Athlete, Child, Plato, Play, Serious Play, Seriousness
Abstract
The paper begins with a contrast between two competing paradigms of play: the child and the adult athlete. It then argues that Plato rejects the former but strongly affirms the latter as a model of philosophy – indeed, of the best human life – itself. By contrast, Aristotle rejects both conceptions of play. He is an entirely serious man.