Episode #37 – Yorke on the Philosophy of Utopianism

In this episode I talk to Christopher Yorke. Christopher is a PhD candidate at The Open University. He specialises in the philosophical study of utopianism and is currently completing a dissertation titled ‘Bernard Suits’ Utopia of Gameplay: A Critical Analysis’. We talk about all things utopian, including what a ‘utopia’ is, why space exploration is associated with utopian thinking, and whether Bernard Suits’ is correct to say that games are the highest ideal of human existence.

 

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Show Notes

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 2:00 – Why did Christopher choose to study utopianism?
• 6:44 – What is a ‘utopia’? Defining the ideal society
• 14:00 – Is utopia practically achievable?
• 19:34 – Why are dystopias easier to imagine that utopias?
• 23:00 – Blueprints vs Horizons – different understandings of the utopian project
• 26:40 – What do philosophers bring to the study of utopia?
• 30:40 – Why is space exploration associated with utopianism?
• 39:20 – Kant’s Perpetual Peace vs the Final Frontier
• 47:09 – Suits’s Utopia of Games: What is a game?
• 53:16 – Is game-playing the highest ideal of human existence?
• 1:01:15 – What kinds of games will Suits’s utopians play?
• 1:14:41 – Is a post-instrumentalist society really intelligible?

 

Relevant Links

• Christopher Yorke’s Academia.edu page
• ‘Prospects for Utopia in Space’ by Christopher Yorke
• ‘Endless Summer: What kinds of games will Suits’s Utopians Play?’ by Christopher Yorke
• ‘The Final Frontier: Space Exploration as Utopia Project‘ by John Danaher
• ‘The Utopia of Games: Intelligible or Unintelligible‘ by John Danaher
• Other posts on utopianism and the good life
• The Grasshopper by Bernard Suits