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Bernard Suits

Bernard Suits was a philosopher who taught for most of his career at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Against Wittgenstein's claim that games…

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1925 – 2007 · Waterloo (Ontario)

Traditions: Analytic

Bernard Suits was a philosopher who taught for most of his career at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Against Wittgenstein's claim that games share no common essence, he offered a definition of game-playing: the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. In The Grasshopper, written as a playful dialogue modelled on Aesop's fable, he argued that in a utopia where all instrumental needs were met, game-playing would be what gives life its point.

Key ideas

  • Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
  • Games combine a goal, permitted means less efficient than possible ones, rules and a 'lusory attitude'.
  • Contrary to Wittgenstein, games can be defined.
  • In an ideal world free of necessity, game-playing would be the highest good.

Major works

  • "What Is a Game?" (Philosophy of Science, 1967)
  • The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978)

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