Bite-Sized Philosophy
Alan Watts On The Lost Art Of Play
How The Distinction We Draw Between Work And Play Makes Us Miserable
In one of Alan Watts’ classic essays, Work As Play, he draws our attention to a common philosophical error: misunderstanding the very nature of work and play. He describes our sense of play or having fun as something that does not produce a useful result:
We are delighted by it because it’s not useful. It doesn’t really achieve anything that we would call purposive work. It is simply what we call play.
The Separation Of Work And Play
He then goes on to explore our insistence on keeping the work we do separate from play.
But in our culture we make an extremely rigid division between work and play. You are supposed to work in order to earn enough money to give you sufficient leisure time for something entirely different called having fun or play.
This is a most ridiculous division. Everything that…
