Name: Yong Jie Hui Jeffrey

Play was described by Friedrich Nietzsche as the highest level of humanity, a part of the
three-step development of the nature of humans, which includes our cognitive behaviour,
feelings and fears. This correlates to the reason why the author, Stephen T. Asma pointed out
play being an important factor to humanity, which was his overall claim in the excerpt.
However, insinuating that play as the highest level of humanity is quite extreme. This was the
reason why Asma mentioned, As usual with Nietzsche, we can debate the precise meaning
of this cryptic simile. This statement shows that the author is expecting a fair amount of
arguments over the impact of play has over humanity.

Asma claimed that play is rarely praised in philosophy. He mentioned that philosophy has
had little consideration of playing. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle pointed out that
play is an abnormality to life. Plato penned his disapproval of artistry in his book, The
Republic, and Aristotles claim was that play serves only as a breather for hard workers.
Linking to Aristotles Greek affiliations, scholar is associated with the word leisure which
is skole in Greek. Juvenal, a Roman poet, described bread and circuses to the distractions
of Roman citizens towards their responsibilities. These were the objections that disapproved
play in philosophy.
Ironically, Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, a poet and a Greek scholar. He
was a philosopher who measured the importance of play, a poet like Juvenal, and a Greek
scholar like Plato and Aristotle, which have been associated to skole. Asma used Friedrich
Nietzsche as an example of a philosopher who shared similar traits as Plato, Aristotle and
Juvenal to point out that not all philosophers completely rule out play in philosophy.

Asma then referred to a composition written by Bertrand Russell in 1932, In Praise of

Idleness to validate that philosophy still exists in play. The sentences he highlighted, the
modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never
for its own sake and the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of
work formed as his rejoinders that offered an optimistic view of play in philosophy.

Asma then inferred play in the context of animal life, which he pointed out that play is
evident in the diverse mammal class. Research have shown that play among mammals serves
as a communication means which forms relationships, friendships and experience that results
in happiness. He relates to Jaak Panksepp detailing how rats play, and how rats laugh to
symbolise that rats are happy while playing. Using the research findings, Asma used the
context of animal life to state that play has good effects.
The research findings on animal life, prompted animal scientists to suggest that play has also
transformed social bonding of humans. However, this may lead to a generalisation that these
observations of the animal life will help us better understand ourselves, since humans are
mammals too. In the book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles
Darwin, Paul Ekman and Phillip Prodger, it was mentioned that animals have more limited
expressions than humans. Thus, it is unfair to compare humans to animals.

Asma suggested that play should be divided into two main categories being active and
passive. The passive forms also being called as amusements which seem to reduce creativity
and activity because such forms of play does not require any skill or effort. The active form
on the other hand, promotes energy in activities which uses skill, effort and practice. He then
inferred sports, music and chess and even the effort to understand the thoughts of self, are

examples of active play. Music which Asma defined as an example of an active form of play,
was used as a context to show us that we should not only think of success, that sometimes we
neglect the fun during the process to success.

Asma claims that The stakes for play are higher than we think. He continued to explain that
play makes us think lesser about our immoral aims and wants. He explains that during play
we seldom think of work and external factors, but rather think of ourselves and having fun.
However, these are claims that could have exaggerated play, similar to the highest form of
humanity mentioned by Nietzsche. It falls under the fallacy of begging the question, where
Asma have listed the good effects of play to favour his claim on the stakes of play.

Asma stated in his conclusion that we can attain the highest form of humanity when we
physically and mentally put our hearts into active forms of activities, we will then achieve
happiness for ourselves and others, and solely for the positives that derives from the
activities. The conclusion serves as a rejoinder to those who criticise play is not important to
humanity.

I agree with the Asmas overall claim of play being the highest form of humanity to a
certain extent.
Firstly, I agree with how the word play is being highlighted in various forms and
definitions by Asma, reminding us that play remains as part of us today. However, play might
have been overly exaggerated by being as part of the highest level of humanity also known
as the holy yea, which could be begging the question.

He then concentrated on the topic on philosophy where philosophers such as Plato and
Aristotle ridiculed play, shrugging it off as an abnormality in life. Asma showed that he was
disagreeing that play has no involvement in philosophy by listing out his objections. He had
two arguments, first being Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote the novel Thus Spoke
Zarathustra which listed out the connections between play and human nature. His second
argument was Bertrand Russel who wrote In Praise of Idleness. I agree with these
arguments because they contain content which allows readers to believe that play is part of
philosophy.
However, I do not agree with two of Asmas claims.
Firstly, I do not agree with how the good effects of play in animal life affects humans. This
can be seen as a hasty generalisation of play in animal life to human life. Humans are not
animals, and animals are not humans either. Although there is sufficient research to prove that
animals are having fun while playing, this does not mean that humans will react the same
as animals during play.
Secondly, I do not agree with the rest of Asmas claims such as stakes for play are higher
than we think, because this could be begging the question such that Asma used the
favoured conclusions to support his claim.
In conclusion, I believe that play is important to humanity, but there is a limit to the impact of
play has over our lives.

(1133 words)