In this philosophical treatment of play Kostas Axelos traces his thinking on the world deployed as play from Heraclitus through to the culmination of metaphysical philosophy with Nietzsche, Marx and Heidegger.

One of the great philosophical treatises on play and games Drawing on philosophies of gaming and play from Heraclitus and Plato through to Marx, Nietzsche and Heidegger, Kostas Axelos outlines an extraordinary, unique vision of our contemporary world. Originally published in 1969, The Game of the World brilliantly anticipates a 21st century in which ever-accelerating technological transformations coincide with a world at play and in play, at once fragmentary and totalised, disordered and hyper-organised. In the midst of this paradoxical and deranging becoming-planetary of the world, Axelos offers a sequence of profound meditations on play and playing, games and gaming, directing us towards new means of thinking and action that may enable us to face the world-historical challenges of our own present. Kostas Axelos (1924-2010) was a Greek-French philosopher and translator. A specialist in Heraclitus, Karl Marx and Martin Heidegger, as well as in Friedrich Hölderlin and Stéphane Mallarmé, he taught and researched at the Sorbonne, as well as the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the École Pratique des Hautes Études. The Game of the World is his magnum opus, and as yet only the third English translation from his vast and important body of work. Justin Clemens teaches in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Hellmut Monz teaches at RMIT University, Vietnam. .