The Power of Focus with C. Thi Nguyen

A conversation with philosopher and author C. Thi Nguyen about the power of focus, the precision of puzzles, the dangers and delights of games and play and the distinction between them.

We talk about his recent book Games, Agency as Art and well as his popular articles Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles and How Twitter gamifies communication.


Some of the books and people mentioned are:

Mary Poovey, History of the Modern Fact

Theodore Porter, Trust in Numbers

Bernard Suits definition of games

Jerry Levinson, Moral Outrage Porn

Basho: even in Kyoto / when I hear a cuckoo cry / I long for Kyoto

Feminist philosophy of art by Anne Eaton

Annette Baier, Trust and Anti-Trust


Transcript:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomies. Today, we're  📍 talking to C. Thi Nguyen. Mostly about his book Games ,Agency as Art but also about many other things....about love, how is it related to games? Thi is a kind of philosopher's philosopher, so it's a little surprising to hear him say that philosophy was his backup career that he actually wanted to be a novelist.  But when you hear how much pleasure he takes in Kant's formula of humanity, I think you'll also imagine he's always been a philosopher as well....we turn back and forth and shift around like a Rubik's cube. Art. Porn. Focus. Vulnerability. We talk a lot about trust...

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