A Reader Asks: Tell Me More about James P. Carse
James P. Carse first appeared on this Substack newsletter as a source, and a citation in a post dated January 13, 2022, and titled “Learning to Fail Successfully”. See link below:
A reader asked for more information about the author, and the book in the citation.
Source: Carse, James P. (1986), Finite and Infinite Games, A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, Free Press
Carse was a professor of religion at New York University.
The Obituary
He died on September 25, 2020. He was 87 years old.
His obituary provides more information than many other sources. “Memories & Condolences” continue to be added to this obituary, up to this month of January 2022, and since October 2020.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/recorder/name/james-carse-obituary?id=12013688
Finite and Infinite Games
I started to read “Finite and Infinite Games”, shortly after it was published in 1986. The book made a strong impression because it presented religion in a format that looked like mathematical logic.
The 1980s were still a time of books instead of screen-time on personal computers. The first IBM PC was introduced in 1981. It was a time that paved the way for Carse’s finite and infinite games, full of books about the laws of the game, and visions of infinity, including:
Source: Eigen, Manfred and Winkler, Ruthild (1981), The Laws of the Game, How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance, Alfred A. Knopf
Source: Rucker, Rudy von B. (1982), Infinity and the Mind, The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite, Birkhauser
The dust jacket on “Finite and Infinite Games” presents it as a book of “… stunning elegance, teasing out of his distinctions a universe of observation and insight, noting where and why and how we play finitely and infinitely.”
Carse used the distinction between finite games, and the one and only infinite game to contrast a long list of observations, and their consequences.
Based on personal notes taken when I read the book, see below a table with a curated selection of such observations and consequences:
Reference Narratives for “Large-World” Decision-Making
As a professor of religion, his most important observation contrasted belief systems based on finite games with belief systems based on the infinite game.
Belief systems based on finite games have a beginning and an end. This makes them apocalyptic belief systems with a linear view of time.
Belief systems based on the infinite game have no beginning and no end. This makes them belief systems that keep history alive with a cyclical view of time.
This distinction connects dots discussed in prior posts, including: (i) Ole Peters’ Ergodicity Economics, and (ii) Howard Bloom’s typology of actors in complex, evolutionary systems.
Quantifying Finite and Infinite Games with Ergodicity Economics
In 1986, Carse’s “Finite and Infinite Games” felt like discovering a new mind-map for social interactions based on mathematical logic.
It took nearly 25 years to find ergodicity economics as a means to update this mind-map from verbalized mathematical logic to mathematical computations about the meaning of the means.
A belief system, based on finite games, with boundaries and a linear view of time resembles actors or circumstances with an additive growth dynamic as a decision-making criterion.
On the other hand, a belief system based on the infinite game, with no boundaries and a cyclical view of time resembles actors or circumstances with a multiplicative growth dynamic as a decision-making criterion.
The Other Books
He wrote eight books. The five books that I read resonated deeply, not only because of their content, but also because of their unusual stylistic differences:
Source: Carse, James P. (1994), Breakfast at the Victory, The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience, Harper Collins
Breakfast at the Victory is a series of deeply personal vignettes, a prayer and meditation book in the form of stories about ordinary life.
Source: Carse, James P. (1997), The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple, Harper Collins
The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple connects us with the antique tradition of writing gospels, and shows us how to write our own. Carse invites us to take ownership of our belief system instead by buying into something pre-packaged by an institution.
Source: Carse, James P. (2008), The Religious Case Against Belief, The Penguin Press
The Religious Case Against Belief feels like a polemic from antiquity. It distinguishes between levels of ignorance, including willful ignorance, to contrast belief, based on finite games, from religion, based on the infinite game.
Source: Carse, James P. (2017), PhDeath: The Puzzler Murders, OPUS
Carse crafted his literary goodbyes in the form of a modern-day detective novel, a 21st Century version of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”. This book is a concrete form of creative playing in the infinite game that complements his abstract statements from earlier books. Reading PhDeath, I could hear the sound of Eco’s laughter in my ears.
At the end of each post, we ask ourselves the following question before we publish it:
“What is an individual member of the next generation supposed to do with this?”
Personal practices based on this post:
(i) Build your own library of carefully curated books. Reading on a computer screen does not match the personal connection to an author’s consciousness that comes from holding a book in our hands, decades later, and re-reading it, especially if you can find your old notes.
(ii) As you reflect on your own belief system, do you see a system based on finite games, or do you see a system based on the infinite game? What do you want to do about it?
Minds are closing down under stress. People are tired of ideas. They want to know how to survive. “CTRI by Francois Gadenne” connects the dots of life-enhancing practices for the next generation, free of controlling algorithms, based on the lifetime experience of a retirement age entrepreneur, and continuously updated with Wealth, Health, and Statistics research performed on behalf of large companies.