From "Tom Hurka Interview on Bernard Suits's The Grasshopper":
In game-playing you aim at a goal that's in itself completely trivial: that a ball go into a hole in the ground, that you cross a line on the track before anyone else does, that you stand atop a mountain. But the rules of the game make achieving that goal complex and difficult, and it's that difficulty that gives the activity its value. To play the game you have to aim at a trivial goal, and you haven't succeeded in the game unless you achieve the goal, but the value of the activity is independent of the value of the goal. That's why I say game-playing is the paradigm expression of modern values, because what those values emphasize is process not product, journey not destination. And there's the big contrast with someone like Aristotle, who said that if an activity produces a goal outside itself, the activity has to have less value than the goal does. Not true! That a ball go into a hole in the ground is completely trivial. That Tiger Woods can make it do so from 562 yards away in four shots is tremendously valuable.
From "Tom Hurka Interview on Bernard Suits's The Grasshopper":
ReplyDeleteIn game-playing you aim at a goal that's in itself completely trivial: that a ball go into a hole in the ground, that you cross a line on the track before anyone else does, that you stand atop a mountain. But the rules of the game make achieving that goal complex and difficult, and it's that difficulty that gives the activity its value. To play the game you have to aim at a trivial goal, and you haven't succeeded in the game unless you achieve the goal, but the value of the activity is independent of the value of the goal. That's why I say game-playing is the paradigm expression of modern values, because what those values emphasize is process not product, journey not destination. And there's the big contrast with someone like Aristotle, who said that if an activity produces a goal outside itself, the activity has to have less value than the goal does. Not true! That a ball go into a hole in the ground is completely trivial. That Tiger Woods can make it do so from 562 yards away in four shots is tremendously valuable.
http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/virtualphilosopher/2007/12/tom-hurka-on-be.html