Heidegger and the play notion as disposition

Abstract

In contemporary philosophy, approaches to the notion of play rarely refer to Heidegger; this one, in lectures given in the winter course of 1928/1929, Heidegger presented important reflections on what considered to be the primordial play of transcendence, which exerted influence on authors that deepened the debate on the notion of play, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer in Truth and Method (1960), and Eugen Fink in Play as a Symbol of the World (1960). This article intends to deal with the notion of play developed in the work Introduction to Philosophy, which constitutes the record of these lectures. The goal is to demonstrate that, for Heidegger, before the game, and any rule established through it, we are moved by a disposition (Stimmung), related to an original play (spielen) that dominates and drives the being-there to being-in-the-world (In-der-Welt-sein) and links it to its worldliness (Weltlichkeit). This disposition, as a state of mind or affective tonality, leads the being-there to constitute the world as a space of play (Spielraum) of transcendence. In addition, it is important to note that the being-there (Dasein) is the one to whom his own being is always at stake, for therein lies a peculiar opening which is the basis of the living and pulsating behavior of the human in general; because being embraced by the being in the whole, as moved by transcendence and by the understanding of being (Seins-verständnis), the being-there would always be situated in a game of life (Spiel des Lebens).