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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Full of great wisdom and if you are looking for great quotes ... it is a gold mine.
When I picked up James Carse's 'Finite and Infinite Games,' I thought I was picking up a book about game theory. Rather, I was picking up a philosophy text. Unfortunately, I wasn't picking up a particularly good philosophy text.
The busy reader can find the core of Carse's argument right there on the back cover of the first edition: "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play." Carse takes this idea and applies it across many roles, behaviors, and stages of life.
In essence, Carse sees the finite game in Nietzschean terms, as the expression of competing wills to power. He sees the infinite game in Zenlike terms, as immersion in the flow of the universe itself. This is interesting stuff, particularly for those not versed in Nietzschean or Zen schools of thought. However, Carse goes astray when seeking to roll his posited dichotomy into a complete worldview. His worldview, shockingly enough, is that of a Professor of Religion at NYU. One gets the sense that, having conceived of his dichotomy, he applied value judgements to the competing worldviews he posited. Having done that, he spends the remainder of the book justifying how those pursuits and ideas which he already likes conform to the worldview he considers most estimable.
In other words, 'Finite and Infinite Games' is 150 pages of a college professor drinking his own Kool-Aid.
Recommended for: armchair philosophers who have yet to discover Nietzche and Zen.
The busy reader can find the core of Carse's argument right there on the back cover of the first edition: "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play." Carse takes this idea and applies it across many roles, behaviors, and stages of life.
In essence, Carse sees the finite game in Nietzschean terms, as the expression of competing wills to power. He sees the infinite game in Zenlike terms, as immersion in the flow of the universe itself. This is interesting stuff, particularly for those not versed in Nietzschean or Zen schools of thought. However, Carse goes astray when seeking to roll his posited dichotomy into a complete worldview. His worldview, shockingly enough, is that of a Professor of Religion at NYU. One gets the sense that, having conceived of his dichotomy, he applied value judgements to the competing worldviews he posited. Having done that, he spends the remainder of the book justifying how those pursuits and ideas which he already likes conform to the worldview he considers most estimable.
In other words, 'Finite and Infinite Games' is 150 pages of a college professor drinking his own Kool-Aid.
Recommended for: armchair philosophers who have yet to discover Nietzche and Zen.
I gave it a good try but couldn't make heads or tails of the second half. On my "read again when I'm older" list.
e. Reread - now I loved it.
e. Reread - now I loved it.
There is such a good book in here, but this isn't it. The author obscures his interesting thoughts with poetic and clever-sounding but unfuriatingly hard-to-process prose. He uses just enough concrete examples to make it obvious how great a read this could be if he would just deign to help his reader connect it to anything actionable in their lives.
Great book. Very difficult to read. Need quite an attention to follow through the thought process presented. May require multiple re-readings.
Some interesting quotes and a few interesting ideas presented here, however I simply think Carse is wrong about too much to buy into his case. I feel like he tries to cram every idea and human behavior into his very black and white world. The later half of the book lost the novelty of the first half, was repetitive, and compounds weak ideas on top of other shaky ideas as if we all accepted them as truths.
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12403497
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12403497
Extraordinary. Explains society, culture, art, organizations, etc. Big wow.
informative
reflective
fast-paced