@philosophyminis: Whether you play chess, or Monopoly, or cricket, or rugby, or Dungeons and Dragons, or Fortnite, or I spy with your three-year-old child, it doesn't matter. The point is that we can all play games. And according to Johan Huizinga, this defines what it is to be a human being. For Huizinga, a game involves various elements, but one of the most important is the ‘magic circle,’ or the ‘game space.’ This is an isolated, hallowed ground, removed from everyday life, where the game actually happens. It's the place of rules, of instructions, and inviolable laws. On the pitch in rugby, you cannot pass forward. On the board in chess, a bishop has to move diagonally. In Dungeons and Dragons, a wizard cannot wear heavy armour. The magic circle is a temporary world within the ordinary world that ‘creates order and brings a temporary, limited perfection.’ For Huizinga, we create games everywhere. If you look at a court of law, with its wigs and ceremony, and so on, you see a kind of role-playing game. Likewise, with poetry, with writing, with philosophy, we have certain rules, a magic circle, that you have to follow to ‘win’ the game. Play is not trivial. It is a defining element of what it is to be a human being. To be a member of society is to follow rules, and the cheat will shatter civilisation itself. Something to think about the next time you try to cheat in Monopoly.

Jonny Thomson

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Thursday 27 August 2026 15:30:00 GMT