May 2018

New Philosopher

For curious people

New Philosopher5 min read
Contributors
Simon Critchley is Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the moderator of The Stone, an opinion series in The New York Times, and he has written for The Guardian, The LA Review of Books, and The New York Rev
New Philosopher1 min read
Winning And Losing
In the 15 years from 1996 to 2010 there were seven different winners of the Tour de France, with US cyclist Lance Armstrong ‘winning’ seven in a row from 1999-2005. By 2012, it was clear that all bar one of the champions, Carlos Sastre, who won the 2
New Philosopher2 min read
Faster, Higher, Stronger Get A Life
It’s now one of the most iconic photos in Olympic history. Two American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, first and third respectively in the 200m final, stand on the podium, as the US national anthem plays, each with heads bowed and a black-g
New Philosopher1 min read
A New Era Of Cheating?
On 21 April 1980, Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line in the women’s category at the Boston Marathon. Her time of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 56 seconds would have been the fastest female time ever recorded at Boston. It was, however,
New Philosopher5 min readPsychology
The Promise Of Play
Until recently, if you’d told me I needed to spend more of my life relaxing or having fun, let alone playing, I’d have smiled and nodded in agreement, while privately concluding you must be one of life’s underachievers, attempting to make a virtue of
New Philosopher4 min read
Just A Game?
Any new entertainment technology worth its salt is greeted as a portent of impending doom. In the 18th and 19th centuries, moralists fretted that novels would leave readers (especially women) sexually inflamed, disconnected from reality, and prone to
New Philosopher2 min read
Play Stats
The stadium with the largest spectator capacity in the world is Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, in North Korea, with a capacity of 114,000 people. Serena Williams’ total of 23 Grand Slam singles tennis titles is a record in the Open Era, and is secon
New Philosopher9 min read
The Mystery And Metaphysics Of Federer
A top athlete’s beauty is next to impossible to describe directly. Or to evoke.Federer’s forehand is a great liquid whip, his backhand a one-hander that he can drive flat, load with topspin, or slice – the slice with such snap that the ball turns sha
New Philosopher4 min read
A Form Of Tribalism
As a teenager, I would go with my father to football matches in London. In the heaving stalls, among the smell of salty hot chips and ketchup, we’d holler for our heroes: Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Michael Owen. Unlike most peo
New Philosopher4 min read
Let The Kids Out
If you go to the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London, you will find that it has been transformed into a gigantic playground, on a scale that as a child, you could only have dreamt. The 35,520 square foot hall is full of three-person swings that can e
New Philosopher4 min read
The Seriousness Of Play
At the heart of play, games and sport lies a paradox concerned with triviality and seriousness. Running around a large rectangular pitch trying to kick a ball into a net is a completely pointless activity and yet every week millions of people do it,
New Philosopher5 min read
Bread And Circuses
“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!” Juvenal For nearly 500 years, the citizens of Rome elected their leaders. Structurally, Ro
New Philosopher6 min readSocial Science
Embracing Leisure
“I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.” The
New Philosopher5 min read
Play Like A Child
How important is play and playfulness in elite sport? More important than conventional wisdom permits: playfulness is central to both the acquisition of skill and the ability to perform under pressure. Superficially, my opening question is an odd one
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History Of Games
A game of chance that was likely an early form dice. The modern version has a rubber ball and 10 knucklebones. A race/war game with a heavy focus on gambling. The board has 52 squares arranged in an ‘X’ shape and each player has six coloured pebbles.
New Philosopher5 min read
What’s In A Game?
Most people’s image of Ludwig Wittgenstein is shaped by that famous photograph of him standing against a wall, dour-faced and intense; by stories of him living alone like a hermit by a Norwegian fjord to get the peace he needed to work on the ideas t
New Philosopher5 min readSelf-Improvement
Unlocking The Creative Mind
Creativity likes to break the mould. It lives ‘outside the box’, which is to say that it cannot be constrained. And it soars: think of the ‘blue sky thinking’ that has become synonymous with corporate innovation, or the flights of fancy we associate
New Philosopher6 min read
War Minus The Shooting
Now that the brief visit of the Dynamo football team has come to an end, it is possible to say publicly what many thinking people were saying privately before the Dynamos ever arrived. That is, that sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will, and that i
New Philosopher3 min read
Play
While playing squash, let it be known that rackets is your Game, and that squash is that very different thing, a game which you find it occasionally amusing to play at, for the fun of the thing. R. Simpson first drew my attention to this gambit when
New Philosopher5 min read
Choking And The Yips
The baseball great Yogi Berra, who died recently at the age of 90, was notorious for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. On one occasion the Yankees manager told him not to be so impetuous, but “think, think, think”. Next time he was at bat,
New Philosopher13 min read
Being Outside Yourself
Nigel Warburton: You’ve just written a book called ‘What We Think About When We Think About Football’. How did the book begin? Simon Critchley: The book began with an interest in football which goes back to when I was two years old. And I have wri
New Philosopher6 min read
In Praise Of Idleness
Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying: “Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told, and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present
New Philosopher6 min read
A Space For Care
I remember the moment: coming back to my father’s house a day or so after his death and being struck by the sensation that each of his belongings was somehow changed, distorted, alien. It was like walking into the wrong hotel room by mistake or reali
New Philosopher6 min read
Competitive Camping
I recently fell down the social media rabbit hole that is the Vanlife hashtag. In it, girl-next-door models pose casually with expensive coffee pots in reclaimed-wood-lined campervans in front of iconic, North American national park views. Accompanyi
New Philosopher3 min read
The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
Tanya and Cinque have been arrested for robbing the Hibernia Savings Bank and placed in separate isolation cells. Both care much more about their personal freedom than about the welfare of their accomplice. A clever prosecutor makes the following off
New Philosopher2 min read
Around The Web
Gamification is bullshit. I’m not being flip or glib or provocative. I’m speaking philosophically. More specifically, gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is video games and to
New Philosopher2 min readPsychology
Our Library
Matthew’s pitiable existence as an individual and the attitude people had towards him filled my growing mind and has occupied me to this day. I came into personal contact with Matthew. His brother was my playmate and when we got in Matthew’s way he g
New Philosopher2 min readSports & Recreation
What’s On
Launched in 2017, this monthly philosophy discussion series is held on the second Thursday of each month beneath the vaulted gables of an 1840s warehouse at the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart, Australia. The format is participatory rather than dicta
New Philosopher4 min read
Be A Winner, Not A Whiner
Some five-year-olds play chess competitively, including mine. This alone makes me queasy. But it’s the environment, the chess culture, that propels me into nausea. Modelled on Texas football culture, the Texas chess circuit teaches children that it’s

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