Nguyen meets his critics—Games: Agency as Art in a philosophy of sport context

C. Thi Nguyen – the author whose new book, Games: Agency as Art, is the main provocation for co-editor John Russell and I putting together this special issue of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport – is a singularly unique voice in the philosophy of games. Despite the fact that the bulk of Nguyen’s academic work dates back a mere five years or so ago, one hesitates to call him an emerging voice, for he has already emerged, and changed the discipline in his wake – not to mention the disciplines of aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of agency. It is not mere hyperbole to claim that the rest of the academic world is currently racing to formulate calibrated responses to his oeuvre, and that this special issue of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport constitutes a significant contribution to that effort. Nguyen is a system builder in the traditional philosophical sense, with pieces of his schema being revealed not only in his various academic articles, but also in real time on Twitter, Facebook, and various podcasts, where you might catch him wondering aloud about why it is that he never previously noticed that his work on the philosophy of games applies perfectly to an issue regarding social media currently vexing him. A good part of the popular and professional appeal of his work lies in moments exactly like this. He stays human throughout the system-building, and refuses to don the mask of the dull, po-faced analytic philosopher – his tone is humorous, real, edgy, unpretentious, and excitable. He demonstrates that one need not trade one’s philosophic voice for rigor: his work stands as proof that both of these goods are commensurable. In short, there is plenty of engaging material being thrown up in his intellectual churn, with many of his most influential publications being his most recent. I consider the following pieces to be loosely interlocking, and recommend them enthusiastically to our readership: