Ants, grasshoppers, asshoppers, and crickets cohabit in Utopia: the anthropological foundations of Bernard Suits’ analyses of gameplay and good living

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I consider Alkis Kontos’ and Allan Bäck’s critiques to Suits that his theory of games and good living lack ontological grounds or rests on the wrong foundations. Taking these critics as my point of departure (not as my critical target), I provide an analysis of the main tenets of Suits’ anthropology. This anthropology partly lays the grounds that Kontos and Bäck claim Suits’ theory lacks. I proceed as follows, I examine Suits’ early works, to which Kontos and Bäck had access, to argue that they contain an anthropology, albeit in an embryonic state. Subsequently, I examine Suits’ latter works, which remained inaccessible to Kontos and Bäck when they formulated their critiques, to identify and explain the key elements of Suits’ anthropology.