Exam IV: Exploring Alan Watts's Philosophical Perspectives: Games, Dualities, and the Illusion of Self

Analysis of Alan Watts' views on perception, duality, and self-identity.

Benjamin Clark

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Exam IV: Exploring Alan Watts's Philosophical Perspectives: Games, Dualities,and the Illusion of SelfExam IV1.)What is the basic difference between a game and a contest? Why is Watts’s adaptation of thetraditional Indian view put in terms of the one instead of the other?The difference between a game and a contest can be understood on the basis of competition. A gamecan simply consist of rules and pre-determined means with which to reach favorable ends. On the otherhand,a contest could include the characteristics of the game and, additionally,itpresupposestheexistence ofa winner and a loser. A game could also imply a form of cooperative play but a contest isalmost always in the sense of competition where one becomes the victor over another.The concept used by Watts is that of a gameas a myth or a type of large-scale playful exercise whichhelps to create an image of the world or a likenessof it. The myth or the concept of a game does notdescribe the world in terms of scientific validity. In Watts view, the Vedanta philosophy consists of abelief in a deity who ‘plays’ with the world while being a part of it so things are not separate from thisdeity. The universe only seems to consistof disparate thingsbecause it is part of the game that the deityplays.Watts adapts the Vedantic game concept because he is trying to explain that the worldcan beconceivedlikewise, i.e. with opposites and interconnectedness.He may also like the terminology of agamerather than a contest because he seeks to emphasize that the world cannot exist in a state ofcompetitionwith the self opposed to othersas this will simply lead to more massive conflicts or warsand environmental degradation.2.)In chapter one (but it is also found in chapter three),what does Watts suggest has become the“opposite” but equally devastating viewpoint of that which takes God to be the benevolentoverseer of our lives?(In some ways, he hints, this viewpoint is just theinevitableflip-side to thebelief in a benevolent Fatherwho is a discrete and separate power from us.)a.That God is a malevolent overseer who has deliberately put us in a lifeless and lonelycosmos.b.That the wrath of a hot God has died away to give us the cold chill of a blind,fragmented, lonelyworld.c.That the world is more alive than we are.d.Thatthe universe is an illusion.

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Exam IV: Exploring Alan Watts's Philosophical Perspectives: Games, Dualities, and the Illusion of Self

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