Abstract

The dissertation argues that play is a fundamental part both of what it is to be human, and of the best human life. Chapter One explores Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens, in which it is argued that human civilization both arises from and culminates in play. Huizinga's argument distinguishes various forms of play, and puts forward a basic definition, unfolding the unstable relationship between seriousness and play. Chapter Two turns to Friedrich Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of Man, and the argument that human beings only become fully human when they play. Schiller presents play as a response to beauty, and tries to demonstrate the role of play in moral education. But it is never clear, from his account, what that role is, and so his account of the identity, and hence the importance, of play, is unsatisfying. ;The most compelling account of the importance of play can be found in Plato's bold and complex treatment of play in the dialogues . Chapter Three serves as an overview of play in the dialogues, with a particular focus on the question of Socratic play. Chapter Four examines the negative presentation of Socratic play in the Symposium , in which Alcibiades---Socrates' reputed beloved---accuses him of spending his whole life at play. Play is tied to human desire, but it is not clear whether or not play is a perversion of desire, or its fullest manifestation. This question is resolved in the final chapter. Chapter Five focuses on the Phaedrus, in which a positive account of Socratic play is found in the myth about the dialectic of the rational and the non-rational elements of the soul. The myth centers on the image of the soul as a winged chariot, and the game of recollection that is played once the soul loses its wings and is embodied. By means of this myth, Plato explains why play is an ennobling human activity and why it is so easily misunderstood