ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some practical examples – the use of the imagination, of playing 'let's pretend' in the formulation of hypotheses; the playing of games or, in other words, experiments; the value of toys or, in other words, scientific equipment; and the role of a basic, childlike fascination in scientific work. The equation of beauty, the aesthetic, and play is not a direct one, but the role of the aesthetic sense in play is strong – much play is beautiful, and art is playful. The 'innocence' of children, meaning the way they enter wholeheartedly into games, and the respect they have for the rules enable them really to play. Johan Huizinga compellingly and relentlessly argues that play is at the foundation of human culture, and wholly permeates it. The spirit of playful competition is, as a social impulse, older than culture itself and pervades life like a veritable ferment.
