Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/49

PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY. 35 'hilosophy asks : How is play to be regarded as a whole in relation to other human activities ? What purpose does it serve in racial progress ? How is its growth related to general biological develop- lent? I have elected to follow common- sense (of a rather intel- lectualised kind) as roughly mapping out the denotation of the term ' play '. I discuss the psychology of play, and follow this with some slated psychological fundamentals, the misapplication of 7hich has, in my view, done much to support an erroneous )lay-theory. In this connexion are treated Perception and lagination in their bearing on Play, and Play as fictitious belief. Then, in the consideration of Play in Language and } lay as Art, we approach a less individual and more uni- versal view, which, by an easy transition, leads us to some liscussion of the philosophical theories of play. And, finally, short summary indicates suggested conclusions and a few Educational corollaries. II. STANDPOINTS FROM WHICH DEFINITIONS OF PLAY HAVE BEEN MADE. Just as the classifications of the natural man depend upon the more obvious aspects of things and their purposes in relation to himself, and so differ from the classifications of the man of science, who takes a wider range and names other characteristics essential, so do the classifications of the various sciences themselves differ from each other, so is the same word variously defined according to the standpoint of the survey. We should, therefore, hardly expect that the word ' play ' would have escaped the variations which we all tend to make when we pass from one classification to another, from one standpoint to another. Certain activities are cur- rently called ' play ' from the standpoint of common-sense, and we shall, at least provisionally, accept the denotation of the term ; but with a preliminary caution to ourselves not to be misled. For the application of the term ' play ' very often exhibits an instance of the psychologist's fallacy, mostly committed by those who are not psychologists. Acts which would be playful if performed by us are assumed to be playful when performed by others. We need only state the assump- tion to put ourselves on guard against making it. It would seem essential that we should distinguish the psychological from the philosophical standpoint. The method of psychology is frequently said to be individualistic. The