Pure philosophy
Game philosophy provides a simple way to understand the human condition and see what living well means in practice.
We can imagine it as a seven piece jigsaw puzzle.
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The seven pieces will give you a sense of how the elements of game thinking fit together.
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Pure philosophy family: circle, triangle, square, walking line
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Piece 1
Life is fundamentally game-like. All living things exist within structures of possibility. They try to reach the possibilities that define success in the particular life games they play — the possibilities in which they and their progeny are likely to survive and flourish.
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Piece 2
Big games often have smaller games nested within them. Success in big games comes through succeeding in lots of little games.
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Piece 3
Play is inherently intelligent. By acting to bring about a particular set of outcomes, players carry the world towards futures that wouldn’t be reached if their action was random — futures that are information-rich; futures that embody order.
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Piece 4
Consciousness provides a second channel of intelligence. Our first-person experience of life enables us to act more intelligently than we could have if we were zombies. Our seeing and our feeling helps us follow paths towards flourishing.
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Piece 5
People handle life’s complexities best when they’re playful. When we’re serious, we become tightly bound to our current perspectives on reality. But when we’re playful, we flit between perspectives. We see more. Our scope for effective action broadens.
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Piece 6
Clarity of purpose comes from an examined sense of value. Examining what most matters to us can build a sense of purpose that propels us powerfully through life’s games.
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Piece 7
Excellence can be cultivated. We can open up a space for useful insight simply by focusing our attention on how we’re playing our life games. We’ll then make connections. We’ll see things afresh. And we’ll make changes.
Read about Cultivating ExcellenceNext
The point is to not merely understand the world, but to change it.
See how philosophy can become practice.