Play Makes Us Human I: A Ludic Theory of Human Nature
Play is the germ that grew to make us human.
Heaven take pity on those few of us who try to take play seriously. It's hard to do. Play, by definition, is something that is not serious. I'm sure that's part of the reason why most serious scholars stay far away from the topic.
The great classic scholarly book on human play is entitled Homo Ludens, which means literally Man the Player. It was written by Johan Huizinga, a Dutch historian, in 1938. It's a wonderful book and has inspired me greatly. But my own theory is quite different from Huizinga's.
Play Makes Us Human I: A Ludic Theory of Human Nature | Psychology Today
Play Makes Us Human IV: When Work Is Play
Is your work play? It can be.
One of the first and most often reinforced lessons that children learn in school is that work and play are opposites. Work is what one has to do; play is what one wants to do. Work is burdensome; play is fun. Work is essential; play is trivial. But when we leave school and go on to the "real world," at least some of us, the lucky ones, discover that work is not the opposite of play. In fact, work can be play, or at least it can be imbued with a high degree of playfulness.
When work is play, it is humanizing. It brings out our best qualities and makes us feel good. When work is toil--the opposite of play--it can be dehumanizing. We become beasts of burden, whether the burdens are borne mostly by our muscles or our minds. What are the qualities that can make our work play rather than toil?
In this series on "Play Makes Us Human," I was originally going to devote just one essay to the topic of work. But now I realize that one essay would be inadequate, so I've decided to devote two essays to the topic, which will be just a little less inadequate. Here, in the present essay, my focus is on the definition of play and how gainful employment can fall within that definition. Next week I'll describe how hunter-gatherers minimized the work-play distinction and suggest some ways by which we might emulate them in this regard.
See All Stories In
Definition of Play
In an earlier essay, on the *definition of play*, I elaborated on the idea that play is structured activity that is (a) self-chosen, (b) self-directed; (c) imaginitive, or creative; (d) intrinsically motivated; and (e) produced in an active, alert, but not distressed frame of mind. To the degree that any activity has these characteristics, we experience it as play. Work, at its best, can have all of these characteristics to a high degree. Let me explain.
Play Makes Us Human V: Why Hunter-Gatherers' Work is Play
Hunter-gatherers made work play by making it optional.
Our word work has two meanings. It can mean any unpleasant activity; or it can mean any productive or useful activity, regardless of its pleasantness or unpleasantness. The first of these meanings is the opposite of play; the second is not. We use the same word for the two meanings, I suppose, because in our culture's history the two meanings have so often overlapped. Productive activity conducted by slaves, servants, and hired hands with no sense of choice about what they are doing indeed is work in both senses of the term.
To keep the two concepts distinct, so we can think about them separately, let's use the term toil for the first meaning (unpleasant activity) and work for the second. With this terminology, toil is the opposite of play, but work is not. Work can be toil, or it can be play, or it can lie anywhere on a continuum between the two.
Play Makes Us Human V: Why Hunter-Gatherers' Work is Play | Psychology Today
.
.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment