Finite and Infinite Games

This is one of my favorite books because it attempts to construct a new view of the world piece by piece and actually succeeds. This is not to say that the view is right or wrong. It is just rare that someone constructs a view that could be viewed as a "revolt" against our daily experience of structure, but does so in a logical, fun, and non-threatening way. We end up left with the choice to change how we participate in the daily activities or not. There is no requirement to overthrow or denounce your own past actions or anyone else's. I like Carse's use of a game as the base structure because it makes it easy to say, "Hey, we're just playing a game here...suspend your normal judgment and play by these rules." He then proceeds to detail specific definitions of many terms to set up contrasting ways of looking at the world. He also uses some humorous analogies. It is common when I am in certain situations to remember that people do compete passionately to become the "baton twirling champion of Indiana." For me, the beginning sections of this book move rather quickly. It sometimes seems as if much is obvious and that this is more of a clever, pun book. But, it definitely gets more difficult a third to a half-way through. So, be prepared to reread some sections. But, the consistency of thought never ends and the building of deeper ideas on top of simpler ones makes the book have a definite flow versus just be some inspirational passages. This is highly recommended. I have purchased many copies as gifts over the years.

The subtitle of this book is "A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility." This puts quite succinctly what this project is all about. Carse creates a number of distinctions through which he interprets life: finite and infinite games, society and culture, gardens and machines. Throughout, he comes again and again to reminders of choice and possibility. He reminds us that the games we play we choose to play, that we choose to assume our roles, that our society is a collective choice. He points to the ways that we mask these choices from ourselves and provides the insight we need to be aware of our self-veiling.This is what philosophy should be like. It is philosophical poetry. One of the most unique aspects of the book is that nowhere does Carse attack another view or provide a first principles defense of his own view. He provides a vision, helps us reinterpret the world, and then lets the insight it provides be its own defense. The following quote from the text reflects much on Carse's project: "Storytellers do not convert their listeners; they do not move them into the territory of a superior truth. Ignoring the issue of truth and falsehood altogether, they offer only vision. Storytelling is therefore not combative; it does not succeed or fail. A story cannot be obeyed. Instead of placing one body of knowledge against another, storytellers invite us to return from knowledge to thinking, from a bounding way of looking to an horizonal way of seeing." (sec 78)Perhaps Carse cannot succeed in his project, but certainly his vision is compelling.Robert Pirsig is quoted on the back cover: "Normally we add new facts to existing knowledge. But once in a while a book like this comes along and does just the opposite - it adds a new pattern of knowledge to existing facts. The result is striking." This is perhaps as good a recommendation as I could give. The book is short and divided into short sections. It is an easy read, even if you take it slow. Reading this book is taking a journey you won't regert.

Professor Carse writes in the first chapter, "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play." From that beginning he broadly defines "game" in a way that includes, defines, and lays an analytical foundation for all relationships. The book's subtitle is "A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility," and it is a profound work, practically a unified-field theory of human relationships.For example, the book contains an interesting theory about sexuality, as being either a finite game (§§ 54-59) or an infinite game (§§ 60-62). The contrast between perceiving sexual relationships as finite or infinite is startling. On a broader (yet surprisingly even more personal) level, in his chapter titled "A Finite Game Occurs Within a World" (ch. 4), Carse explores the individual's struggle with defining, regarding, and regulating the world around oneself in a way that includes everyone around one, or just oneself alone.The first step in appreciating this book is understanding that any relationship or process can be characterized in "finite" or "infinite" terms. The second step is recognizing that that characterization is almost always a matter of choice and that, by choosing to characterize a relationship as "infinite," one can redefine it in a meaningful and healthy way. After reading this book, you may never look at the world around you, or at any relationship, or at yourself in quite the same way. This book reconfigures thinking about interpersonal reality as deeply as Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" reconfigured thinking about the scientific method.

I buy this book in bulk when I can and give it as gifts to people I care about. Carse makes a profound distinction between games that are essentially futile and games that support and maintain life and creates a beautiful little handbook for living. There are games that end in X amount a time with a clear loser and winner and there are games that are played for their own sake where competition is not a factor and all participants are winners. Carse's distinctions remind me of Eric Berne's concepts of Good Games and Bad Games. Carse's descriptions are much more general and are not as difficult to understand as Berne's -- they don't require the background of Transactional Analysis to understand making "Finite and Infinite Games" more generally applicable and useful. Pretty good work for a Methodist minister! :-)

Finite and Infinite Games has been for me nothing less than a revelation. I first read this short discourse shortly after it was published in 1986, and have not gone a year without revisiting it both to understand and to use within my own life.What Finite and Infinite Games does is bring perspective. It empowers the self to understand and accept the finite rules imposed by ourselves or others and to decide if and how one plays around those rules or with those rules. It is a book of hope. Alas, James Carse's book is not for everyone. Of the many copies I have given to family and friends, some half have not inspired the recipients. I suspect that one must either be looking for, desire, or already be aware of a little bit of the infinite to really understand the slightly abstract nature of this work.For over a decade one of the top 2 books in my library.