Playful Thinking: Theater and Philosophy (du jeu dans la pensée)

Abstract

The occasioned severity of theater with regard to philosophy is merely an echo of a long and lasting relationship. To this corresponds philosophy's malevolent fascination with theater. When exposed to the risks of theater, all of philosophy's projects are challenged in its metaphysical concerns as well as in its educational, moral and political aims. The staging of theater and philosophy together will necessarily take place in the mode of rivalry. In this paper, while acknowledging the lasting character of this relationship based on a power struggle, the authoress' aim is to expose its weaknesses and to illustrate how other options might be sketched out. Rivalry only makes sense in a context of close proximity: “love and hate”. The notion of the “playful thought” is introduced in the paper (to translate the French “du jeu dans la pensée”). A dialogue is established when the philosopher exposes his thought to the risks of reality and when the theater opens up the stage to receive ideas that are not exclusively entertainment. Nonetheless, the only site of the encounter is within the spectator.