The Philosophy of Games: an Intensive Writing Course in Philosophy

About the course

Games are a fun way to pass the time, but they hardly seem like a serious or important endeavour. We are ready to mock people for wasting too much time playing online shooters or table-top role-playing games. There is an obvious explanation why games are little more than an indulgence we afford ourselves: the outcomes rarely matter. So why do we spend so much time, energy, and money on them? 

This course introduces students to recent work on the question why games matter. The course focuses particularly on recent arguments that the process of playing games is important, even though the goals of games are unimportant. Students are introduced to this approach through Games: Agency as Art by C. Thi Nguyen, which draws on resources from ludology (the study of games), philosophy of agency, and aesthetics. We will critically engage with Nguyen's proposal and the response it received in the philosophical literature from, among others, Thomas Hurka, Quill Kukla, and Antonia Peacocke.  

Throughout, the course offers a hands-on approach to philosophical writing.  Students get the opportunity to practice crucial steps in the philosophical writing process: information intake, writing a first draft, providing and receiving feedback on drafts, and rewriting drafts into polished essays. These exercises allow students to develop their writing skills while acquiring in-depth knowledge of current debates in the philosophy of games.