Die spielerische Versammlung der Welt oder Heideggers Topologie des Spiels

Abstract

The Playful Assembly of The World or: Heidegger's Topol­ogy of Play
In dealing with the concept of play, the focus is often on games in which something is handled, be it very concretely toys, play figures, or other objects that are interwoven into the practice of play. This also applies to Lego or sand as complex, because not fixed, toys. Even computer games depend on a material interface, insofar as they need connection to our corporeality. All these
games already move within a certain framework of under­ standing. Things receive their meaning in the interaction of the game. The philosopher Martin Heidegger, however, uses the concept of play and the characteristics of play to describe that fundamental event which makes a horizon of understanding possible in the first place. Not only that of concrete games of all kinds, but of our understanding in general. Heidegger calls this event Spiegel-Spiel (mir­ror-game). The article examines this notion as well as the importance that things as artifacts play in this regard, and shows the extent to which Heidegger understands man as
a homo faber ludens.