Eugen Fink’s deep engagement with the phenomenon of play saw him transcend his two towering mentors, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, to become a crucial figure in early 20th-century phenomenology. The Phenomenology of Play draws on Fink’s concept of play to build a picture of his philosophy, from its foundations to its applications.

The book’s three sections focus on the building blocks of Fink’s phenomenology of play, how his work maps onto the broader history of philosophy, and finally how his writing can be applied to contexts from education and care to politics and religion. This rich account of Fink’s contribution to theories of play demonstrates its immense value and fundamental importance to human existence. Relating Fink’s work to that of his contemporaries and predecessors like Husserl, Heidegger, Schiller, Gadamer, Nietzsche and Sartre shows the range and importance of his ideas to modern European thought. The Phenomenology of Play also features newly translated material including notes from conversations between Fink and Heidegger, and Fink’s own essay ‘Mask and Cothurnus’ on ancient theatre – which shed new light on his philosophical enquiries.

List of Contributors
Preface: The Virtues of Eugen FInk
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Part I: Background and Foundation
1. Play In the World as Symbol for Play of the World, Christopher Turner
2. Fink’s Position within the Phenomenological Movement and the Origins of his Cosmology of Play, Giovanni Jan Giubilato
3. Fink’s Phenomenology and Ontology of Play and its Relation to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics, Núria Sara Miras Boronat
4. Fink and Gadamer: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and the Aesthetics of Play, Stefano Marino
5. Fink and Heidegger on Cosmological and Ontological Play: A Confrontation, Ian Alexander Moore

Part II: History of Philosophy
6. The Last Temptation of Metaphysics: Fink’s Nietzsche, Dale Wilkerson
7. Fink, Schiller and Echoes of Classical German Philosophy, Susanne Schilz
8. What is the Problem that Fink Solved for Derrida and Deleuze in 1967? Hakhamanesh Zangeneh
9. Phantasy and Play in Husserl, Fink and Sartre, Daniel O’Shiel
10. Fink and Plotinus on Play, Emile Alexandrov

Part III: Application to Philosophical Issues
11. Music and Ontological Experience: Fink’s importance for our understanding of Music, Goetz Richter
12. The Relation of Play and Education in Fink: Human Play as an Analogical Path to Understanding Onto-Cosmology, Steve Stakland
13. "The desert grows"? On a remarkable silence in Fink's Oasis of Happiness, Holger Zaborowski
14. Holy Laughter: A Pentecostal Pneumatology of Play in Fink and Wariboko, Jason W. Alvis
15. Ontology of Play and the Ambivalence of Resilience, Alice Koubova
16. From Animal Rationale to Ens Cosmologicum: Fink on Animality, Catherine Homan
17. Politics as Social Gameplay? How we might Reconsider a Phenomenology of Play in Terms of Freedom and Responsibility, Annette Hilt

Part IV: Translations and Commentaries
18. World, Individuation, and Play: A Critical Introduction to Fink’s Conversations with Heidegger, Giovanni Jan Giubilato and Ian Alexander Moore
19. Two Conversations with Heidegger by Eugen Fink, edited by Giovanni Jan Giubilato and Ian Alexander Moore
20. Translator’s Introduction: Mask and Cothurnus, Christopher Turner
21. Mask and Cothurnus, by Eugen Fink, translated by Christopher Turner
22. Notes on a Translation: Fink’s Nietzsche’s Philosophy, Goetz Richter
23. Review of Fashion: Seductive Play, Chester Mlcek
24. Annotated Bibliography of all Fink English Translations, Anna Coli and Chester Mlcek


Bibliography
Index