Homo Ludens

Huizinga has proposed the notion 'Homo Ludens', which has received scant mainstream attention, that entails that Play is a necessary condition of any culture. With the conceptual resources of Formaterialism available, a stronger assertion can made: Play is the essence of any Individual activity, equivalent in the System to the notions Evolvement and Creativity. Hence, the historical thesis can be advanced that Homo Ludens fulfills the Kantian turn from Homo Sapiens, as the definition of Humanity, to Homo Faber. Implicit versions of this concept of Humanity can be found in the later works of both Nietzsche and Dewey, e. g. in the former's struggle against 'the spirit of gravity', and in the latter's attempt to transcend the distinction between Means and End. As the sometimes hysterical reaction to Nietzsche indicates, Homo Ludens is contrary to some of the main premises of Western culture, and of American society, in particular. The primary source of those premises is the standard interpretation of the exile of Adam and Eve from Eden, i. e. the condemnation of Humanity to a toilsome existence, and of the more specific American 'work ethic', for which toil is the path to redemption. At minimum, Play is associated with idleness and laziness, and more stridently, with charges of 'immorality' and 'atheism', similar to what Nietzsche's thinking continues to encounter. But, Formaterialism is satisfied that such orthodoxy is an expression of underdeveloped Humanity.