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[PHIL] [2021. IV] Renaissance comment on Chess

Signor Gaspare replied: “And what do you say about the game of chess?” “This is certainly a refined and ingenious recreation,” said Frederico, “but it seems to me to possess one defect; namely, that is is possible for it to demand too much knowledge, so that anyone who wishes to become an outstanding player must, I think, give to is as much time and study as he would learning some noble science or performing well something or other of importance; and yet for all his pains when all is said and done all he knows is a game. Therefore as far as chess is concerned we reach what s a very rare conclusion: that mediocrity is more to be praised than excellence.” [1]

More than just a “refined and ingenious recreation,” chess can be a “gymnastic of the mind” keeping one's wits sharp like regular exercises keep one's body in shape. Nevertheless, signor Frederico's point stands. And it is more relevant today than five centuries ago. That astounding amounts of time and energy are wasted on all kinds of frivolities one needs look not further than oneself.

People have an innate need for achieving sensible goals. Moreover, those goals need to be achieved with a deal of autonomy for the outcome to be truly satisfiable. Great satisfaction and sense of achievement of fulfilling existential goals (food, shelter, protection) are unknown to the wast majority in the industrialized world, for when one's basic existential conditions are met one, as a rule, had no sensible autonomy in achieving them (he didn't hunt or plant, he didn't build, etc.). In itself, this is not bad. On the contrary, it frees one pursue higher things - to live and not merely survive.

Living, however, requires willpower for setting and pursuing meaningful tasks. And willpower is a rare thing, most are found wanting. Worse, the modern society provides an ever increasing multitude of addictive ‘surrogate activities’ that trap people in vacuous and inane pursuits that hamper them from developing discipline and power of will sorely needed for a meaningful existence. And every once in a while when one realises how much one has wasted, instead of turning to sensible pursuits with a sense of urgency and newfound zeal, one often indulges in self-pity and laments on how little time one is given. But as Seneca pointed out millennia ago, time would be plentiful if only it was used right.

“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.” [2]

Back matter

Footnotes

(1) Gaspare Pallavicino (1486 - 1511).

(2) Federico Fregoso (c.1480 - 1541), Italian nobleman, general, and cardinal.

(3) Baldassare Castiglione (1478 - 1529), Italian courtier, soldier, diplomat, and author.

(4) Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (c.4AC - 65AD), Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and author.

References

[1] Baldassare Castiglione, “Book of the Courtier” (1528).

[2] Seneca, “De Brevitate Vitae” (c. 48).