Johan Huizinga (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈjoːɦɑn ˈɦœy̯zɪŋɣaː]; December 7, 1872 – February 1, 1945), was a Dutchhistorian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.
Life
Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his degree in 1895. He then studied comparative linguistics, gaining a good command of Sanskrit. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the role of the jester in Indian drama in 1897.
"Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience."
"You only live a short time...and you are dead a long time.."
"wake the French from their dream, and tell them honestly: 'No, we no longer have the dominant influence we once had in Europe, nor will we get it back. We can't put up a protectionist dam on our own against the neo-liberal world market either. However, we can try, together with our European partners, to maintain the social character of Europe as much as possible.'"
"Life is made too easy. Mankind's moral fibre is giving way under the softening influence of luxury."
"It is the goal of the American university to be the brains of the republic."
"Whether the aim is in heaven or on earth, wisdom or wealth, the essential condition of its pursuit and attainment is always security and order."
"History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us."
"Culture means control over nature."
"You only live a short time... and you are dead a long time."
"Culture must have its ultimate aim in the metaphysical or it will cease to be culture."
"In Europe art has to a large degree taken the place of religion. In America it seems rather to be science."
"Revolution as an ideal concept always preserves the essential content of the original thought: sudden and lasting betterment."
"Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture."
"The susceptibility of the average modern to pictorial suggestion enables advertising to exploit his lessened power of judgment."
"Physical nature lies at our feet shackled with a hundred chains. What of the control of human nature? Do not point to the triumphs of psychiatry, social services or the war against crime. Domination of human nature can only mean the domination of every man by himself."
"An aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression it is sober and reserved. Its general attitude is stoic."
"Do you know anything that in all its innocence is more humiliating than the funny pages of a Sunday newspaper in America?"
He recalls being “absolutely shocked” as a 21-year-old reading Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s influential 1938 book Homo Ludens, which argued that play is older than civilisation.
And it’s making me think, too, of an idea from the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, who wrote in the first half of the 20th century and did a lot of similar work, I think, to what we’ve been talking about with Professor Nguyen.
Play equals creativity. In order to be an entrepreneur, you need to nurture it. Here are 5 lessons on how to do it from one of the best books on the role of play in our culture ... .
Daphne, who runs on pleasure and denial, asks what she means ... From left ... The end of everything we call life is close at hand and cannot be evaded.” In 1919, Dutch historian Johan Huizinga wrote that it was “bad form to praise the world and life openly.
(MENAFN - The Conversation) Medieval Europe was a place of great emotional incontinence. So much so that historian Johan Huizinga claimed .–Modern man has no idea of the unrestrained extravagance ... .
Editor’s note ... As he pointed out, Mayer shared this cosmopolitan and supra-national horizon with other historians coming from small nations, such as the SwissJacob Burckhardt, the BelgianHenri Pirenne, and the DutchJohan Huizinga. [See also.
... about the world.” Games happen in what the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga famously called “the magic circle”— where the players take on alternate roles, and our actions take on alternate meanings.
Back before sports became a massive industry, Dutch historian Johan Huizinga wrote Homo Ludens, his famous work on the importance of “play” in culture generation ... In Huizinga’s construction, we are under a spell when participating in this reality.
What might have happened if Britain had … But where do you go with that thought? Especially in such grim times as these. If only we had voted against Brexit, perhaps. Or been better prepared for Covid ...The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga put it this way.
There’s the chequerboard game Senet , played in Egypt around BCE3100... The concept of the “magic circle”, introduced by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga , suggests that during games, players enter a temporary world with its own rules and boundaries.
