Double World or the Matter of the Game

An English proverb states that adults differ from children only in the value of their toys. A toy is a thing familiar to each of us from childhood; it is simple understandable subservient to man. But its simplicity and comprehensibility are deep and meaningful. It is a toy that transmits the cultural experience from generation to generation with its material language; in fact it is the first thing of culture. The father of the Russian toy science N.D. Bartram called a toy both a mirror of life and a friend of the child. But unlike the game the toy rarely attracts the attention of cultural scientists and philosophers. The monograph Double World or the Matter of Play is a philosophical and cultural study of the world of the toy which is understood as a material modus of the ideal reality of the game. The author investigates the history of the toy offers original typologies and classifications of toys for both children and adults researches modern toy images. The book may interest both specialists (culturologists philosophers historians psychologists pedagogues) and just attentive loving parents as well as those adults who have not forgotten about their children's and adults' toys.