“Philosophy of play”

INVITATION 

1.  SPRING SYMPOSIUM “PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY” ORGANIZED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS 

Zagreb, April 16-18, 2020

The Association of Philosophy Students of the University of Zagreb is organizing their 1st spring symposium, which will be held from the 16th to the 18th of April 2020 in the Conference hall at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb. We invite all interested students of the humanities and social sciences to submit presentations on the subject “Philosophy of play”. 

The subject is interdisciplinary and encompasses a wide spectrum of philosophical interests which include the following: the definition of play, game vs. play, play as a human activity, social role-playing, play and competition, play and sport, play and culture, learning through play, ontology of play, language games, video games, play and art, play and reality, sociology of play, psychology of play, rhetorics of the play theories, and an array of other topics which concern other humanities and social sciences. Within the field of philosophy, the subject concerns, among else, ontology, philosophy of education, logics, philosophy of language, aesthetics and epistemology, . Friedrich Schiller, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Bernard Suits and Eugen Fink among others conducted research on play. However, play can be found even in works where it is not mentioned explicitly. At this symposium, an attempt will be made to answer some of the questions the aforementioned philosophers asked. But because of the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, as well as the participation of students from different areas of humanities and social sciences, some new ones are certain to arise. 

The typical presentation sections of the symposium consisting of three fifteen-minute presentations followed by a fifteen-minute discussion will be accompanied by an extended program connected to the symposium’s subject. While the goal of the main program is the development of the scientific research and presentation abilities, the aim of the extended program is to encourage students’ creativity and originality. For example, the extended program will include a workshop on creating a philosophical board game, which should result in a prototype by the end of the symposium. A program booklet will be composed as well, and the symposium will be followed by a call for papers, which will be published in a special section of the journal “Čemu” (“What for”), titled “Philosophy of Play: Papers of the 1st Spring Symposium of the Association of Philosophy Students”.  

Registration fee is free of charge, and participators from outside of Zagreb will be provided with free accommodation. It is possible to apply as an individual presenter, or in a pair, and the application is filed by sending the application form, containing the participant information and a summary of the presentation consisting of 700 to 900 characters. Please send applications and questions to:[email protected]. The application deadline is the 25th of February 2020, and the applicants will receive feedback on their application on the 10th of March 2020.  

We invite you to enrich the 1st spring symposium of the Association of Philosophy Students with your contribution!