Deep Conceptual Play in James and Hare

Abstract

Peter Hare's philosophy is marked by the development of what he called conceptual play. Drawing from his commitment to poetry, naturalism, and contextualism, Hare finds that many of our beliefs and values are influenced by a more primary collection of focal concepts. To the extent that figures such as William James experiment with these concepts in philosophic word play, they also loosen the bonds any single concept may have on us. As a result, deep conceptual play extends our cognitive powers by opening avenues of experience found to be otherwise inaccessible.