Return of the Grasshopper: Games, Leisure and the Good Life in the Third Millennium
About this ebook
In Return of the Grasshopper, Suits puts his theoretical cards on the table, exploring the in-depth implications of his definition of utopia, assessing the merits of a gamified philosophy, and explaining how games can provide an existential balm against the fear of death. Perhaps most importantly, for the first time in print, Suits reveals his underlying worldview: that humanity is forever fated to endure a cyclical existence of privation, brought on by material scarcity, and boredom, resulting from material plenitude. An essential companion to The Grasshopper, this edition includes an introductory chapter that puts Suits’ life and work into context, helping the reader to understand why Suits has had such a profound influence on contemporary philosophy and how his ideas still provide powerful insight into the human condition.
This book is important reading for anybody with an interest in the philosophy of sport, leisure and play, political philosophy, ethics, existentialism or utopian studies.
About the author
Bernard Suits is a foundational figure in the philosophy of sports and games. A philosophy professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada, for most of his life, he is best known for his seminal book The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. Bernard Suits died in 2007.
Christopher C. Yorke is Philosophy Instructor at Langara College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. He has written his doctoral dissertation and several academic journal articles on the subject of Bernard Suits’ utopia of gameplay.
Francisco Javier López Frías is Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Penn State University, USA, and a Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, with a courtesy appointment in the Philosophy Department.
