Page 132 - 《社会》2025年第2期

失格的竞争：赫伊津哈游戏理论中的文明省思

at defining play itself. Between the two World Wars， in the face of cultural decay
in social life and the intensifying hostile political competition， Huizinga drew upon
Plato， Schiller， and Burckhardt， as well as incorporated the philosophy of
reciprocity of the Annales school’s anthropology into his elaboration of the“Homo
Ludens” concept. Huizinga expanded the non鄄utilitarian value of play in human
civilization from individual aesthetic education to the level of group coexistence，
presenting it as a messianic proposal to reclaim classical humanistic traditions and
the ideal of peace. Huizinga conceived of play as a beneficial competitive state
crucial to civilizational development. Within a broad comparative civilizational
perspective， the competitions， contests， and rituals， typically depicted by classical
anthropology as occurring between opposing groups， were seen to create universal
cultural institutions， such as law， poetry， and myth. These institutions possessed
cultural regulatory power precisely because they were structured within a framework
of play， mitigating tendencies toward fragmentation and antagonism among groups.
For Huizinga， a significant cost of modernity was the decline of play within social
life， where intense competition for economic or political power has led to an
excessive encroachment of the domain of seriousness（Ernst） into the domain of play
（Spiel）， thus returning society back to its primitive state where only “prey” and
“enemies” were visible， most dramatically manifested in the threat of “total war”
to human civilization. Huizinga formulated this judgment against the backdrop of
pre鄄World War II Germany’s increasingly unlawful diplomatic and military
strategies. In contrast to Carl Schmitt， Germany’s leading jurist who similarly
expressed dissatisfaction with modern civilization through his pessimistic friend鄄
enemy distinction theory， Huizinga replaced the assumption of“political man” with
that of“playing man”， and substituted the figure of the“enemy” with that of the
“opponent，” offering humanity an ethically enriched， more optimistic perspective.
Facing today’s intensifying divisions and competition across various fields，
revisiting Huizinga’s theory of play can encourage competing actors to adopt a
spirit of play that maintains seriousness， cultivating the cultural ability to balance
freedom with order and political passion with ethical norms. This approach serves to
reaffirm the fundamental consensus required for peaceful human coexistence.
Keywords：Huizinga，play，agon（competition），coexistence， ethical seriousness

一、 引言：重新发现“游戏的人”

游戏（play/game）是西方思想传统中的关键概念之一。 在从“时间游

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