Bernard Suits

Bernard Suits
Born
Bernard Herbert Suits

1925 (1925)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died2007 (aged 81–82)
Education
EducationUniversity of Illinois
Philosophical work
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
Analytic philosophy
InstitutionsUniversity of Waterloo
Main interests
Philosophy of sport, philosophy of games, value theory, utopianism
Notable works
The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978)
Notable ideas
Definition of game-playing as "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles"; lusory attitude; prelusory goal

Bernard Herbert Suits (November 25, 1925 – February 5, 2007) was an American-Canadian philosopher and professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo. He is widely recognized for his foundational contributions to the philosophy of action, the philosophy of sport, and game studies (ludology). He is best known for The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978), a philosophical dialogue in which he provided a formal definition of game-playing and argues that playing games is the highest human good. Challenging Ludwig Wittgenstein’s famous assertion that games cannot be systematically defined, Suits defined game-playing as "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."

He also offers a fuller definition:

"To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude]."

Selected works

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mitchell, Liam (September 2020). "Reconsidering The Grasshopper: On the Reception of Bernard Suits in Game Studies". Game Studies. 20 (3). ISSN 1604-7982.
  2. ↑ Ballantyne, Cheryl (2019-10-02). "Biographical Information for Bernard Suits". Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. 13 (3–4). Routledge: 485–485. doi:10.1080/17511321.2019.1606851. ISSN 1751-1321.
  3. ↑ Yorke, Christopher C. (2024-06-28), "Bernard Suits (1925–2007)", Bernard Suits (1925–2007), Routledge, doi:10.4324/9780367766924-RESS142-1, retrieved 2026-08-31
  4. 1 2 Devine, John William; Lopez Frias, Francisco Javier (2023), Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), "Philosophy of Sport", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2026-08-31
  5. ↑ Suits, Bernard (2005), The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, Broadview Press, pp. 54–55, ISBN 1-55111-772-X
  6. ↑ Powers, Taliah L. (2023-10-19). "Return of the Grasshopper: Games, Leisure, and the Good Life in the Third Millennium". Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. 19 (3): 315–319. doi:10.1080/17511321.2023.2272052. ISSN 1751-1321.