Combat, Play and Aesthetic Experience: Three Metaphors of Philosophy

Is philosophy a kind of play? Is it a kind of combat? Or is it a kind of aesthetic experience?

Francisco Goya, Two Men Fighting With Cudgels. c. 1822. Public Domain Via Wikimedia Commons.

Two Men, Fighting

You don’t notice it at first.

The two men are fighting it out with big sticks. One has blood streaming down his…