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2. Philosophy - Stefano Franchi

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AI, STRUCTURALISM, AND SPIEL<br />

Of course, such an excessive proximity was destined to breed comtempt, under the<br />

guises of a full scale conflict between the philosophers and the anthropologist. The first<br />

scuffles were to happen with Jean-Paul Sartre, who criticized structural anthropology in the<br />

Critique de la raison dialectique, and was harshly rebutted by Lévi-Strauss in the last chap-<br />

ter of La pensée savage. 58 Then, in the early 1960s, came the debate with the hermeneutic<br />

philosopher Paul Ricoeur that was to continue, although mstly indirectly for the rest of the<br />

decade. I will discuss at length this full-scale confrontation with philosophy in chapter 7<br />

below, sicen a full analysis of the key concepts of structuralism is preliminary to any at-<br />

tempt to gain more clarity on the “non-”philosophical status of Lévi-Strauss’ project.<br />

6. AI, Structuralism, and Spiel<br />

In the previous chapter, I argued that a clearer understanding of the relationship be-<br />

tween Spiel and the end of philosophy could possibly be reached if it were possible to find<br />

examples of non-philosophical discipliens whose theoretical articulation depended essen-<br />

tially on the concept of Spiel or some particuular articulation thereof (given the intrinsic<br />

complexity of the latter concept).<br />

After the long trip through Artificial Intelligence and the previous brief excursus on<br />

Structuralism, it should now be clear why, an in which sense, these two theoretical efforts<br />

can be considered as relevant examples of “non-philosophy” (in a sense, however, still to<br />

further specified for what concerns Structuralism). The next two chapter will provide an<br />

analysis of their relationships with the issue of Spiel, and, in particular with the concept of<br />

game that they articulate as a particular instantiation of the much larger Spiel. Chapter IV<br />

will be devoted to show how Artificial Intelligence entertains an essential relationship with<br />

58. The main texts of this debate are Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique de la raison dialectique (Paris: Gallimard,<br />

1959) and “L’anthropologie,” now in Situations IX, (Paris: Gallimard ; Lévi-Strauss response is contained<br />

in La pensée savage (Paris: Plon, 1962) ; Engl. tr. The Savage Mind (Chicago: Chicago UP,<br />

1966) 245-269, plus a few largely implicit references scattered in Tristes Tropiques and in the introduction<br />

and conclusion of Mythologiques.<br />

177

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