Finite and Infinite Games (Mass Market Paperback)

by James P. Carse (Author) "THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO KINDS OF GAMES..." (more)
Key Phrases: finite sexuality, infinite players, infinite speakers, Master Player, New York, Artful Dodger (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
An extraordinary book that will dramatically change the way you experience life.
Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life, the games we play in business and politics, in the bedroom and on the battlefied -- games with winners and losers, a beginning and an end. Infinite games are more mysterious -- and ultimately more rewarding. They are unscripted and unpredictable; they are the source of true freedom.
In this elegant and compelling work, James Carse explores what these games mean, and what they can mean to you. He offers stunning new insights into the nature of property and power, of culture and community, of sexuality and self-discovery, opening the door to a world of infinite delight and possibility.
"An extraordinary little book . . . a wise and intimate companion, an elegant reminder of the real."
-- Brain/Mind Bulletin

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345341848
• ISBN-13: 978-0345341846
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practically a unified-field theory of human relationships, December 21, 2001

By	Brian Melendez (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Professor Carse writes in the first chapter, "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play." From that beginning he broadly defines "game" in a way that includes, defines, and lays an analytical foundation for all relationships. The book's subtitle is "A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility," and it is a profound work, practically a unified-field theory of human relationships.

For example, the book contains an interesting theory about sexuality, as being either a finite game (§§ 54-59) or an infinite game (§§ 60-62). The contrast between perceiving sexual relationships as finite or infinite is startling. On a broader (yet surprisingly even more personal) level, in his chapter titled "A Finite Game Occurs Within a World" (ch. 4), Carse explores the individual's struggle with defining, regarding, and regulating the world around oneself in a way that includes everyone around one, or just oneself alone.

The first step in appreciating this book is understanding that any relationship or process can be characterized in "finite" or "infinite" terms. The second step is recognizing that that characterization is almost always a matter of choice and that, by choosing to characterize a relationship as "infinite," one can redefine it in a meaningful and healthy way. After reading this book, you may never look at the world around you, or at any relationship, or at yourself in quite the same way. This book reconfigures thinking about interpersonal reality as deeply as Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" reconfigured thinking about the scientific method.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal revelation, March 17, 2000

By	Dale Woloshin (Ottawa, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

Finite and Infinite Games has been for me nothing less than a revelation. I first read this short discourse shortly after it was published in 1986, and have not gone a year without revisiting it both to understand and to use within my own life.

What Finite and Infinite Games does is bring perspective. It empowers the self to understand and accept the finite rules imposed by ourselves or others and to decide if and how one plays around those rules or with those rules. It is a book of hope.

Alas, James Carse's book is not for everyone. Of the many copies I have given to family and friends, some half have not inspired the recipients. I suspect that one must either be looking for, desire, or already be aware of a little bit of the infinite to really understand the slightly abstract nature of this work.

For over a decade one of the top 2 books in my library.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, March 26, 2004

By	"thehangedman" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The subtitle of this book is "A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility." This puts quite succinctly what this project is all about. Carse creates a number of distinctions through which he interprets life: finite and infinite games, society and culture, gardens and machines. Throughout, he comes again and again to reminders of choice and possibility. He reminds us that the games we play we choose to play, that we choose to assume our roles, that our society is a collective choice. He points to the ways that we mask these choices from ourselves and provides the insight we need to be aware of our self-veiling.

This is what philosophy should be like. It is philosophical poetry. One of the most unique aspects of the book is that nowhere does Carse attack another view or provide a first principles defense of his own view. He provides a vision, helps us reinterpret the world, and then lets the insight it provides be its own defense. The following quote from the text reflects much on Carse's project:

"Storytellers do not convert their listeners; they do not move them into the territory of a superior truth. Ignoring the issue of truth and falsehood altogether, they offer only vision. Storytelling is therefore not combative; it does not succeed or fail. A story cannot be obeyed. Instead of placing one body of knowledge against another, storytellers invite us to return from knowledge to thinking, from a bounding way of looking to an horizonal way of seeing." (sec 78)

Perhaps Carse cannot succeed in his project, but certainly his vision is compelling.

Robert Pirsig is quoted on the back cover: "Normally we add new facts to existing knowledge. But once in a while a book like this comes along and does just the opposite - it adds a new pattern of knowledge to existing facts. The result is striking." This is perhaps as good a recommendation as I could give. The book is short and divided into short sections. It is an easy read, even if you take it slow. Reading this book is taking a journey you won't regert.