Philosophy of Video-Games (PhVg)

Convenors: Alfonso García-Lapeña, Carl Hoefer and Karl Bergman.

Description: In the first semester, we will focus on the question "What is a game?", which has been one of the central questions in the literature since the foundation of game studies (2001). So, while our topic is the philosophy of video games, the problem we will be dealing with is what defines games in general. In the second semester, we will move on to topics related to narrative, aesthetics and games.




Sessions

- October 16, 2023. Juul, Jesper (2005). “Video Games and the Classic Game Model”. Chapter 2 of Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. MIT Press Cambridge.

- October 30, 2023. Frasca, Gonzalo (2007). “A New Definition of Game" in Play the Message: Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric, PhD thesis. Chapter 8 and 9. + Veli-Matti Karhulahti (2015). “Defining the Videogame” Game Studies 15(2).

- November 20, 2023. Tavinor, Grant (2008). “Definition of Videogames”. Contemporary Aesthetics 6. + Tavinor, Grant (2008). “The Definition of Videogames Revisited”. The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Oslo 2009

- December 18, 2023. Aarseth, Espen (2011). “Define Real, Moron! Some Remarks on Game Ontologies”. DIGAREC Keynote-Lectures 2009/10

- February 5, 2024. Aarseth, Espen and Calleja, Gordon (2015). “The Word Game: The Ontology of an Indefinable Object”. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2015).

- February 26, 2024. Nguyen, C. Thi, (2019). “The Forms and Fluidity of Game-Play”, in Thomas Hurka (ed.), Games, Sports, and Play: Philosophical Essays, Engaging Philosophy (Oxford, 2019)

 

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