Episode 126, ‘Playfulness Versus Epistemic Traps’ with C. Thi Nguyen (Part I - The Ideal Thinker)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 604 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2024
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There’s great pleasure to be found in make-believe. Instantly shifting our perspectives and belief systems gives rise to new possibilities – possibilities that are unavailable to the serious and sober-minded. Yet, as time passes, so does our desire to play. Adults – and, perhaps more so, philosophers – are instructed to ‘grow up’, to build their lives and views on sensible grounds, and leave their disposition for laughter, disruption, and mischief in the playground. For C. T Nguyen – Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah – this is a foolish mistake.
C. T Nguyen is one of the most innovative aestheticians of our time. As well as being published across philosophy’s leading journals, Nguyen’s work – which focuses on art, games, and agency – has earned him several notable prizes, including the American Philosophical Association 2021 Award, for his book Games: Agency as Art.
In this episode, we’ll be speaking to Nguyen about intellectual playfulness. For Nguyen, playfulness should be understood as a virtue and not a vice. When we explore philosophical ideas through our usual perspectives, we close ourselves off from a rich set of alternative possibilities, and risk re-directing good-faith inquiry into bad-faith results. Playfulness, however, allows us to escape these traps in our thinking, and open ourselves up to the possibility of creativity.
This episode is produced in partnership with the Aesthetics and Political Epistemology Project at the University of Liverpool, led by Katherine Furman, Robin McKenna, and Vid Simoniti and funded by the British Society of Aesthetics.
Contents
Part I. The Ideal Thinker
Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's a great pleasure to be found in make-believe. |
| 0:10.0 | Instantly shifting our perspectives and belief systems gives rise to new possibilities, |
| 0:15.0 | possibilities that are unavailable to the serious and sober-minded. |
| 0:18.0 | Yet, as time passes, so does our desire to play. Adults and perhaps |
| 0:22.7 | more so philosophers are instructed to grow up, to build their lives and views on sensible |
| 0:27.7 | grounds, and leave their disposition for laughter, disruption and mischief in the playground. |
| 0:33.4 | For C.T. Nguyen, Professor of Philosophy at University of Utah, this is a foolish mistake. |
| 0:38.3 | As well as being published across Philosophy's leading journals, Nguyen's work which focuses on art, games, and agency, has earned him several notable prizes, including the American Philosophical Association 2021 Award for his book, Games, Agency as Art. |
| 0:53.3 | In this episode, we'll be speaking to Nguyen about intellectual playfulness. |
| 0:58.0 | For Nguyen, placefulness should be understood as a virtue, not a vice. |
| 1:02.0 | When we explore philosophical ideas through our usual perspectives, |
| 1:05.0 | we close ourselves off from a rich set of alternative possibilities, |
| 1:08.0 | and risk redirecting good faith inquiry into bad faith results. |
| 1:12.4 | Playfulness, however, allows us to escape these traps in our thinking and open ourselves up to the |
| 1:17.1 | possibility of creativity. Hello and welcome to episode 126 of the panpsychast. |
| 1:38.2 | Suspending the serious, I'm Jack Symes, and I'm delighted to be joined once again by the sober, careful and conscientious Mr. Oli |
| 1:46.0 | Hello. And the joking genius, that is Professor C.Ci Nguyen. Oh God, there's an introduction. Thank you. I'll try to live up to that and fail. Welcome to the show, T. It's great to have you with us. It's great to be here. we begin. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the Aesthetics and Political |
| 2:01.3 | Epistemology Project at the University of Liverpool for making this episode possible. |
| 2:06.2 | Generously funded by the British Society of Aesthetics and led by Catherine Furman, Robin McKenna, |
| 2:11.4 | and Vid Saminiti. The Aesthetics and Political Epistemology Project explores questions of |
| 2:16.5 | political reasoning, knowledge formation, |
| 2:19.0 | and emancipation by bringing together leading thinkers in aesthetics, epistemology and political |
... |
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