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What is a Game?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Bernard Suits*
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo

Abstract

By means of a critical examination of a number of theses as to the nature of game-playing, the following definition is advanced: To play a game is to engage in activity directed toward bringing about a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by specific rules, where the means permitted by the rules are more limited in scope than they would be in the absence of the rules, and where the sole reason for accepting such limitation is to make possible such activity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1967

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References

1 The author has argued for the possibility that life itself is a game in “Is Life a Game We Are Playing?” Ethics. Vol. 77, No. 3, April 1967.