Topic of the Issue: HOMO LUDENS
Issue editors: Ivanka Stapova
CONTENTS & Abstracts & Keywords
Iskra Tsoneva – Play as Freedom from Coercion: A Condition for Aesthetic Pleasure
Abstract: This article concerns the concept of play as it is argued in The Sense of Beauty, by the American critical realist philosopher George Santayana. His argumentation represents a tacit polemic with the understanding of play in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Thus, the key issue of the article is the opposition between transcendentally reasoned argumentation and a psycho-social understanding of the essence and meaning of play.
Keywords: play, work, value, perception, beauty, judgment of taste.
Lazar Koprinarov – José Ortega y Gasset: Play as Self-overcoming and Relaxation from the Stress of Reality
Abstract: In the first part of the article, play is considered as a sport. In this case, sport is interpreted figuratively - as a metaphor for a particular type of being of humans. Ortega y Gasset's essential definition of sports as play refers to the urge toward self-overcoming: „the game requires playing, as much as possible, better“. The second part of the article analyzes the relationship between play and „good utopianism“. Finally, the author analyzes the interpretation of Ortega y Gasset's idea of hunting and reveals another meaning of play – as a form of relaxation from reality. The article draws comparisons between the idea of play in Schiller, Huizinga and Ortega y Gasset.
Keywords: sport, play, self-overcoming, utopianism, hunting.
Ognyan Kasabov – Work and Play: Notes on a Political Economy of the Aesthetic
Abstract: The article deals with the meaning of Kant's metaphor of free play of faculties in aesthetic judgment, discussed in the perspective of Schiller's contrasting of work (labour) and play, which gave rise to a peculiar fictional, but conciliatory, status for the aesthetic. The article then traces some articulations between the realms of alienated labour and of free creativity in Hegel and Marx, and concludes with notes on the lasting social significance of this contrastive aesthetic metaphor.
Keywords: play, work, labour, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, alienation, aesthetics, economics.
Silvia Borisova – Let's Play at Heterotopias. A Commentary on Jacques Ranciere's Conception of Aesthetic Heterotopia
Abstract: The article aims to present Rancière's conception of aesthetic heterotopia as a „place of the indeterminate“ in its aesthetical basis, as well as in its relation to the ethical and the political orders; in this context, the author discusses 1) the phenomena of horizontality and plurality in which heterotopias and utopias can be distinguished; 2) the contemporary „revaluation of all values“ (Nietzsche) preceding that horizontality and plurality in a common typology of the axiological need of heterotopias. This discussion ultimately aims to answer the final question: Does the creation and play with (aesthetic) heterotopias make the world a game?
Keywords: aesthetic heterotopia, Rancière, aesthetics, ethics, revaluation of all values.
Abstract: This article concerns the concept of play as it is argued in The Sense of Beauty, by the American critical realist philosopher George Santayana. His argumentation represents a tacit polemic with the understanding of play in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Thus, the key issue of the article is the opposition between transcendentally reasoned argumentation and a psycho-social understanding of the essence and meaning of play.
Keywords: play, work, value, perception, beauty, judgment of taste.
Lazar Koprinarov – José Ortega y Gasset: Play as Self-overcoming and Relaxation from the Stress of Reality
Abstract: In the first part of the article, play is considered as a sport. In this case, sport is interpreted figuratively - as a metaphor for a particular type of being of humans. Ortega y Gasset's essential definition of sports as play refers to the urge toward self-overcoming: „the game requires playing, as much as possible, better“. The second part of the article analyzes the relationship between play and „good utopianism“. Finally, the author analyzes the interpretation of Ortega y Gasset's idea of hunting and reveals another meaning of play – as a form of relaxation from reality. The article draws comparisons between the idea of play in Schiller, Huizinga and Ortega y Gasset.
Keywords: sport, play, self-overcoming, utopianism, hunting.
Ognyan Kasabov – Work and Play: Notes on a Political Economy of the Aesthetic
Abstract: The article deals with the meaning of Kant's metaphor of free play of faculties in aesthetic judgment, discussed in the perspective of Schiller's contrasting of work (labour) and play, which gave rise to a peculiar fictional, but conciliatory, status for the aesthetic. The article then traces some articulations between the realms of alienated labour and of free creativity in Hegel and Marx, and concludes with notes on the lasting social significance of this contrastive aesthetic metaphor.
Keywords: play, work, labour, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, alienation, aesthetics, economics.
Silvia Borisova – Let's Play at Heterotopias. A Commentary on Jacques Ranciere's Conception of Aesthetic Heterotopia
Abstract: The article aims to present Rancière's conception of aesthetic heterotopia as a „place of the indeterminate“ in its aesthetical basis, as well as in its relation to the ethical and the political orders; in this context, the author discusses 1) the phenomena of horizontality and plurality in which heterotopias and utopias can be distinguished; 2) the contemporary „revaluation of all values“ (Nietzsche) preceding that horizontality and plurality in a common typology of the axiological need of heterotopias. This discussion ultimately aims to answer the final question: Does the creation and play with (aesthetic) heterotopias make the world a game?
Keywords: aesthetic heterotopia, Rancière, aesthetics, ethics, revaluation of all values.
Galin Penev – Carnival Play (Losev vs. Bakhtin)
Abstract. The article deals with controversial issues of aesthetics of the grotesque in Bakhtinian reception of Rabelaisean carnival culture. The claims regarding vitality and revival in Bakhtinian theory of carnival are argued from the viewpoint of Losev`s aesthetics of the Renaissance. The author highlights the post-Christian consequences of carnival materialism.
Keywords: carnival materialism, Bakhtin, Losev, revival myth.
Ivanka Stapova – The Play (or the Drama) of the Extreme Loner
Abstract: The article is focused on Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf, which treats of the problem of human loneliness, isolation from society and the search for the other in oneself. Тhe extreme recluse’s playings are a complex combinations of roles, masks and situations. This points to the double, a „deeply unаttractive figure“ (Hesse) that persistently appears, constantly ignoring the original...
Keywords: play, drama, Hermann Hesse, double, extreme loneliness, the other.
Kristiyan Enchev – Play Aspects of the Transcendental Schematizations
Abstract: The aim of the article is to check the possibility for virtual phenomena, or their elements, to interact with one another and to produce a pluralistic critical ontology. A transition from a priori to a posteriori is to be conducted with the following modifications of paradigm: transcendental synthesis becomes a dynamic condition for immediate experience; imagination appears as a distinct potentiality, as an „inter-topos“ of free figuring when pro-cepts meet schema-images. In that sense, imagination obtains the status of „active potentiality“, or a kind of pliable modus of the transcendental synthesis.
Keywords: virtual phenomena, pluralistic critical ontology, pro-cepts, schema images, active potentiality
Ivan Kolev – Homo Ludens as Homo Futuristicus
Abstract: The article deals with specific features of the play elements in the theories and practice of Italian Futurism. Three main topics are discussed: the use of manifestos in art, the nature of Futuristic performances, the idea of futuristic theater. The Futurists break away from classical art. To demonstrate this more clearly, the article presents the primary biblical act of man as a primary artistic act and discusses the Kantian idea of play in contemplation of beauty.
Keywords: name, play, Futurism, theater.
Vyara Popova – The Uses of the Play Element and the Metamorphoses of Homo Ludens
Abstract: The article aims to build a classification of different types of games. Through this immediate goal, it strives to create an ontology of different types of games. In the second, more historical, part of the article, the author shows the relevance and different relations of the game of dice as an application in the field of archeology, probability theory, game theory, conflictology and decision theory. As a result of the discussion, the article presents a hypothesis that Homo ludens originates from Homo sacer.
Keywords : Homo ludens, Homo sacer, game theory, probability theory, decision theory, conflictology, non-cooperative game, antagonistic game.
Abstract. The article deals with controversial issues of aesthetics of the grotesque in Bakhtinian reception of Rabelaisean carnival culture. The claims regarding vitality and revival in Bakhtinian theory of carnival are argued from the viewpoint of Losev`s aesthetics of the Renaissance. The author highlights the post-Christian consequences of carnival materialism.
Keywords: carnival materialism, Bakhtin, Losev, revival myth.
Ivanka Stapova – The Play (or the Drama) of the Extreme Loner
Abstract: The article is focused on Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf, which treats of the problem of human loneliness, isolation from society and the search for the other in oneself. Тhe extreme recluse’s playings are a complex combinations of roles, masks and situations. This points to the double, a „deeply unаttractive figure“ (Hesse) that persistently appears, constantly ignoring the original...
Keywords: play, drama, Hermann Hesse, double, extreme loneliness, the other.
Kristiyan Enchev – Play Aspects of the Transcendental Schematizations
Abstract: The aim of the article is to check the possibility for virtual phenomena, or their elements, to interact with one another and to produce a pluralistic critical ontology. A transition from a priori to a posteriori is to be conducted with the following modifications of paradigm: transcendental synthesis becomes a dynamic condition for immediate experience; imagination appears as a distinct potentiality, as an „inter-topos“ of free figuring when pro-cepts meet schema-images. In that sense, imagination obtains the status of „active potentiality“, or a kind of pliable modus of the transcendental synthesis.
Keywords: virtual phenomena, pluralistic critical ontology, pro-cepts, schema images, active potentiality
Ivan Kolev – Homo Ludens as Homo Futuristicus
Abstract: The article deals with specific features of the play elements in the theories and practice of Italian Futurism. Three main topics are discussed: the use of manifestos in art, the nature of Futuristic performances, the idea of futuristic theater. The Futurists break away from classical art. To demonstrate this more clearly, the article presents the primary biblical act of man as a primary artistic act and discusses the Kantian idea of play in contemplation of beauty.
Keywords: name, play, Futurism, theater.
Vyara Popova – The Uses of the Play Element and the Metamorphoses of Homo Ludens
Abstract: The article aims to build a classification of different types of games. Through this immediate goal, it strives to create an ontology of different types of games. In the second, more historical, part of the article, the author shows the relevance and different relations of the game of dice as an application in the field of archeology, probability theory, game theory, conflictology and decision theory. As a result of the discussion, the article presents a hypothesis that Homo ludens originates from Homo sacer.
Keywords : Homo ludens, Homo sacer, game theory, probability theory, decision theory, conflictology, non-cooperative game, antagonistic game.
Ivan Popov – The Legitimacy of Rules in Art
Abstract:The text takes into consideration the application of the notion of game to the processes and mental attitudes in the world of art, as well the benefits of adopting such an explanatory strategy for the purposes of philosophical aesthetics. The conceptual contradiction between the freedom of self-expression and the compelling nature of rule-following is what makes it fruitful to talk of art as a game and enables a comparison between those two cultural activities. By directing the focus of the discussion to the sociology of art and Pierre Bourdieu's reasoning, the article explicates the methodological conflict between historicism and essentialism in theorizing on art, revealing some non-obvious parallels with attempts in philosophy and history of art to provide an ontological type of definition, derived from certain traditions in the humanities that have been developing independently from one another. The discussion on the adequate way to talk about art in terms of game proceeds to analyze the source of legitimacy of the rules in art, i.e., the source of their normative validity for the participants in the processes of creation and reception of works of art. The text concludes with an ontological interpretation of the reasons for the legitimacy of rules in art.
Keywords: game, rule-following, legitimacy, sociology of art, definitions of art.
Pravda Spasova – Art as a Game for Adults: From Dada to Ai Weiwei
Abstract:Considering art in the context of a game might clarify some troublesome questions related to so-called „contemporary“ art. By this approach, certain installations and actions acquire new interpretations. In this playful interaction between the artist and the public, meanings emerge and vanish.
Keywords: art, game, embodied meaning, analytical philosophy of art, installations, actions
Abstract:The text takes into consideration the application of the notion of game to the processes and mental attitudes in the world of art, as well the benefits of adopting such an explanatory strategy for the purposes of philosophical aesthetics. The conceptual contradiction between the freedom of self-expression and the compelling nature of rule-following is what makes it fruitful to talk of art as a game and enables a comparison between those two cultural activities. By directing the focus of the discussion to the sociology of art and Pierre Bourdieu's reasoning, the article explicates the methodological conflict between historicism and essentialism in theorizing on art, revealing some non-obvious parallels with attempts in philosophy and history of art to provide an ontological type of definition, derived from certain traditions in the humanities that have been developing independently from one another. The discussion on the adequate way to talk about art in terms of game proceeds to analyze the source of legitimacy of the rules in art, i.e., the source of their normative validity for the participants in the processes of creation and reception of works of art. The text concludes with an ontological interpretation of the reasons for the legitimacy of rules in art.
Keywords: game, rule-following, legitimacy, sociology of art, definitions of art.
Pravda Spasova – Art as a Game for Adults: From Dada to Ai Weiwei
Abstract:Considering art in the context of a game might clarify some troublesome questions related to so-called „contemporary“ art. By this approach, certain installations and actions acquire new interpretations. In this playful interaction between the artist and the public, meanings emerge and vanish.
Keywords: art, game, embodied meaning, analytical philosophy of art, installations, actions
Plamen Antov – HERMENEUTICS OF LITERARY PLAYING, or How Juvenile Adventure Literature Plays
Abstract: The first basic these which the study launches (and from which starts) is about the play as heterotopia. This characteristic draws closer it to the ethos of the adventure, resp. to the juvenile-adventure novel. The play is determined as a specific machine for production of quasi-reality. The important role of the language in the fictional literature for moulding of the inner mental space of the play as a heterotopia is investigates.
Other accent is namely the inner modus of the play, its imitative essence: the playing child usually imitates a book (film): (…lets we play of Mayne Reid). The substantial duality of this “inner” heterotopic space (of the playing child) is considered: it is unconflicting divided between reality and fancy. – This feature allied it deeply to basic characteristics of the mythical, “wild” (Lйvi-Strauss) conscious.
…Further the article as a “hermeneutic of the play” starts to investigate some common essential characteristics to infantile and primitive conscious in ethno-cultural and psychological aspect. Lots of examples from juvenile-adventure literature are given and paralleled with the experience of the “terrain” and academic anthropology, as well as with the child psychology. This second chapter of the study aims to trace out the large-scale logic of an identity (marked in the heading) through the key role of the play sharing commonly pedagogical treatment of the play 1) as a specific role activity and 2) as a social system. And besides proceeding from an essence bimodality of the play – its dividing between “exterior”, social, and “interior”, psychological aspect. Namely, here, in relations between social and psychological aspects, the deep descent of the play as a socio-cultural phenomenon leading far back and deep down into the pre-cultural, biological heritage of the man, are discussed. The stadial identical figures of the philogenetic savage and ontogenetic child are interpreted as a most direct bridge between the social and biological spheres, between culture and nature. And the play is that action, simultaneously “interior”, psychical, and exteriored in social sphere, which makes the specific zone of identity-and-difference between the two spheres especially visible.
Keywords: child play; juvenile-adventure literature; heterotopia; reality–fancy; “wild”/child conscious; philogenetic savage – ontogenetic child; pedagogic; imitation; school.
Nikolay Turlakov – The Song of the Animal Bells: „The Most Eloquent Language of the Past”
Abstract: It is not only inappropriate and preposterous, but also impossible, to write a summary of a poem. This is is also true for writing an interpretation of a poem. If the interpretation is adequate, there is nothing that can be summarized about it. Because no parts of it are more or less important than others.
This essay presents an interpretation of a motif in two short stories from two Bulgarian writers. The motif concerns the existential meaning and significance of the feeling of life and authenticity in the memories of the past.
Keywords: language; passions; life; being; authenticity; substantive; past and present.
Nina Dimitrova – Oedipal Tragedy and Autism in Bulgarian Literature (The History of a Debate)
Abstract: The article treats of an important problem in its historical and cultural aspect – the relationship between psychology and literature as debated in the 1930s and 1940s in Bulgaria. Special attention is devoted to the interpretations of the Bulgarian literary heritage, specifically to the poetry of Christo Botev and Peyo Yavorov. A comparative analysis is made of the various stances (Marxist, Rehmkean, Nietzschean, etc.) in the debate, with a focus on the psychoanalytical hermeneutics of Bulgarian poetry. The failure of psychoanalytic literary criticism is explained as due to its effort to be simultaneously part of the humanities and of science.
Keywords: psychoanalysis; Bulgarian poetry; the interwar period in Bulgaria; Botev; Yavorov.
Nonka Bogomilova – A Game for Two (Stefan Zweig's „Chess Story”)
Abstract: Focusing on Stefan Zweig' novel Chess Story/Royal Game (in German – Schachnovelle), this essaydescribes some anthropological and social features that transform the chess game into a struggle against others and against the self.
Keywords: play; chess game; chess champion; social isolation; human essence.
Abstract: The first basic these which the study launches (and from which starts) is about the play as heterotopia. This characteristic draws closer it to the ethos of the adventure, resp. to the juvenile-adventure novel. The play is determined as a specific machine for production of quasi-reality. The important role of the language in the fictional literature for moulding of the inner mental space of the play as a heterotopia is investigates.
Other accent is namely the inner modus of the play, its imitative essence: the playing child usually imitates a book (film): (…lets we play of Mayne Reid). The substantial duality of this “inner” heterotopic space (of the playing child) is considered: it is unconflicting divided between reality and fancy. – This feature allied it deeply to basic characteristics of the mythical, “wild” (Lйvi-Strauss) conscious.
…Further the article as a “hermeneutic of the play” starts to investigate some common essential characteristics to infantile and primitive conscious in ethno-cultural and psychological aspect. Lots of examples from juvenile-adventure literature are given and paralleled with the experience of the “terrain” and academic anthropology, as well as with the child psychology. This second chapter of the study aims to trace out the large-scale logic of an identity (marked in the heading) through the key role of the play sharing commonly pedagogical treatment of the play 1) as a specific role activity and 2) as a social system. And besides proceeding from an essence bimodality of the play – its dividing between “exterior”, social, and “interior”, psychological aspect. Namely, here, in relations between social and psychological aspects, the deep descent of the play as a socio-cultural phenomenon leading far back and deep down into the pre-cultural, biological heritage of the man, are discussed. The stadial identical figures of the philogenetic savage and ontogenetic child are interpreted as a most direct bridge between the social and biological spheres, between culture and nature. And the play is that action, simultaneously “interior”, psychical, and exteriored in social sphere, which makes the specific zone of identity-and-difference between the two spheres especially visible.
Keywords: child play; juvenile-adventure literature; heterotopia; reality–fancy; “wild”/child conscious; philogenetic savage – ontogenetic child; pedagogic; imitation; school.
Nikolay Turlakov – The Song of the Animal Bells: „The Most Eloquent Language of the Past”
Abstract: It is not only inappropriate and preposterous, but also impossible, to write a summary of a poem. This is is also true for writing an interpretation of a poem. If the interpretation is adequate, there is nothing that can be summarized about it. Because no parts of it are more or less important than others.
This essay presents an interpretation of a motif in two short stories from two Bulgarian writers. The motif concerns the existential meaning and significance of the feeling of life and authenticity in the memories of the past.
Keywords: language; passions; life; being; authenticity; substantive; past and present.
Nina Dimitrova – Oedipal Tragedy and Autism in Bulgarian Literature (The History of a Debate)
Abstract: The article treats of an important problem in its historical and cultural aspect – the relationship between psychology and literature as debated in the 1930s and 1940s in Bulgaria. Special attention is devoted to the interpretations of the Bulgarian literary heritage, specifically to the poetry of Christo Botev and Peyo Yavorov. A comparative analysis is made of the various stances (Marxist, Rehmkean, Nietzschean, etc.) in the debate, with a focus on the psychoanalytical hermeneutics of Bulgarian poetry. The failure of psychoanalytic literary criticism is explained as due to its effort to be simultaneously part of the humanities and of science.
Keywords: psychoanalysis; Bulgarian poetry; the interwar period in Bulgaria; Botev; Yavorov.
Nonka Bogomilova – A Game for Two (Stefan Zweig's „Chess Story”)
Abstract: Focusing on Stefan Zweig' novel Chess Story/Royal Game (in German – Schachnovelle), this essaydescribes some anthropological and social features that transform the chess game into a struggle against others and against the self.
Keywords: play; chess game; chess champion; social isolation; human essence.
Andrei Leshkov – Romance and Romanticism. A Scientific Conference on „Aesthetics of Romanticism
Silvia Borisova – The Founding of a Bulgarian Philosophical Society
Nevena Krumova – Cinema and Philosophy: A Fantastic Challenge
Ivanka Stapova– The Fantastic Play of Light
Kristiyan Enchev – Schrödinger's Cat: the Main Character in Milena Nikolova's Sub-atomic Fiction
Silvia Borisova – The Founding of a Bulgarian Philosophical Society
Nevena Krumova – Cinema and Philosophy: A Fantastic Challenge
Ivanka Stapova– The Fantastic Play of Light
Kristiyan Enchev – Schrödinger's Cat: the Main Character in Milena Nikolova's Sub-atomic Fiction