Abstract

BRICENO DOMINGUEZ, Sebastián. Philosophy, Analysis, and Games: The Futile Attempt of Defining Things. Tópicos (México) [online]. 2020, n.59, pp.121-151.  Epub Nov 20, 2020. ISSN 0188-6649.  https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v0i59.1074.

According to McGinn (2012), the aim of philosophy is to discover essences through conceptual analysis, and it qualifies as a game in Suits’ sense (1978; 2014). However, everything in Suits’ definition of game seems to exclude from its scope McGinn’s definition of philosophy. Here I criticise McGinn’s definition and offer a more comprehensive one. Incidentally, this definition will allow us to include philosophy within the class of activities that do satisfy Suits’ definition of game.

Keywords : real definition; essence; conceptual analysis; utopia.