Abstract

This essay examines play as an ontological dimension of human being. It asks in particular how children’s experiences of play offer critiques and expansions of traditional adult frames that have dominated philosophies of play in the West. This “childist” approach suggests that human playfulness is not reducible to irrationality, spontaneity, or use for work. Rather, as childhood studies combined with post-modern thinking suggests, human being involves play in its fundamental capacity for creating meaning.