Oasis of Happiness: Thoughts towards an Ontology of Play (1957)

Fink and Husserl (1949)

 

Play as symbol of the World, the magnum opus of Eugen Fink, is finally available in English decades after it was first published in German. The book is a compilation including the corpus text Play as Symbol of the World, as well as additional texts and notes by Fink on the subject.

 

In his thinking, Fink -whose philosophy had grown in close collaboration with Husserl and Heidegger- brings, on top of the great legacy of the two giants of phenomenology, his peculiar approach to play from the standpoint of the relation of being with the world.

 

The article you will find below, Oasis of Happiness, is not only the opening text of the book but also a condensed text preceding and anticipating the main arguments of the Play as Symbol of the World. We hope that it will be a great introduction to Fink's philosophy of play, and an intriguing invitation to the book for those interested in philosophy and playing alike.

 

PS - Fink was influential over many European philosophers to follow. A preeminent example being the French/Greek thinker Kostas Axelos and his concept of Le Jeu du Monde.  You can find a very interesting relevant article by Axelos in articles.

 

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