Philosophy Looks at Chess

Description

Chess, the ancient strategy game, meets the latest, cutting-edge philosophy in this unique book. When 12 philosophers weigh in on one of the world's oldest and most beloved pastimes, the results are often surprising. Philosophical concepts as varied as phenomenology and determinism share the page with a treatise on hip-hop chess tactics and the question of whether Garry Kasparov is, in fact, a cyborg. Putting forth a remarkable array of different views on chess from philosophers with varied chess-proficiency, Philosophy Looks at Chess is an engaging read for chess adherents and the philosophic.;Introduction; 1. To Know the Past One Must First Know the Future: Raymond Smullyan and the Mysteries of Retrograde Analysis -- Bernd Graefrath; 2. A Deep Blue Grasshopper: Playing Games with Artificial Intelligence -- Andy Miah; 3. Playing Chess in the Chinese Room -- Tama Coutis; 4. Garry Kasparov is a Cyborg, or What ChessBase Teaches Us about Technology -- John Hartmann; 5. Chess-Playing Computers and Embodied Grandmasters: In What Ways Does the Difference Matter? -- Evan Selinger; 6. The Difficult Ways of God and Caissa: Chess, Theodicy, and Determinism in Gadamer -- Bill Martin. Introduction 1. To Know the Past One Must First Know the Future: Raymond Smullyan and the Mysteries of Retrograde Analysis -- Bernd Graefrath 2. A Deep Blue Grasshopper: Playing Games with Artificial Intelligence -- Andy Miah 3. Playing Chess in the Chinese Room -- Tama Coutis 4. Garry Kasparov is a Cyborg, or What ChessBase Teaches Us about Technology -- John Hartmann 5. Chess-Playing Computers and Embodied Grandmasters: In What Ways Does the Difference Matter? -- Evan Selinger 6. The Difficult Ways of God and Caissa: Chess, Theodicy, and Determinism in Gadamer -- Bill Martin. 7. Who Plays Games in Philosophy? Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen8. Hip-Hop Tactics: A Culturalogic Expression of the African Aesthetic's Role in Determining the Basis of Creativity on the Sixty-Four Squares of Warfare -- Tommy J. Curry 9. Quiet, Please! There's a Game Here: Discourse and Silence in the Formal Pragmatics of a Chess Match -- Benjamin Hale 10. Casuistry and Chess: Some Methodological Lessons for Ethics -- Peter Morriss 11. Chess Is Not a Game -- Deborah P. Vossen 12. The Reviled Art -- Stuart Rachels Contributors Index.