ol situations. It is important not
to confuse the psychological distinction between play and work with the
economic distinction. Psychologically, the defining characteristic of
play is not amusement nor aimlessness. It is the fact that the aim
is thought of as more activity in the same line, without defining
continuity of action in reference to results produced. Activities as
they grow more complicated gain added meaning by greater attention to
specific results achieved. Thus they pass gradually into work. Both
are equally free and intrinsically motivated, apart from false economic
conditions which tend to make play into idle excitement for the well
to do, and work into uncongenial labor for the poor. Work is
psychologically simply an activity which consciously includes regard for
consequences as a part of itself; it becomes constrained labor when the
consequences are outside of the activity as an end to which activity is
merely a means. Work which remains permeated with the play attitude is
art--in quality if not in conventional designation.

Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History

1. Extension of Meaning of Primary Activities. Nothing is more striking
than the difference between an activity as merely physical and the
wealth of meanings which the same activity may assume. From the outside,
an astronomer gazing through a telescope is like a small boy looking
through the same tube. In each case, there is an arrangement of glass
and metal, an eye, and a little speck of light in the distance. Yet at
a critical moment, the activity of an astronomer might be concerned
with the birth of a world, and have whatever is known about the starry
heavens as its significant content. Physically speaking, what man has
effected on this globe in his progress from savagery is a mere scratch
on its surface, not perceptible at a distance which is slight in
comparison with the reaches even of the solar system. Yet in meaning
what has been accomplished measures just the difference of civilization
from savagery. Although the activities, physically viewed, have changed
somewhat, this change is slight in comparison with the development
of the meanings attaching to the activities. There is no limit to the
meaning which an action may come to possess. It all depends upon the
context of perceived connections in which it is placed; the reach of
imagination in realizing connections is inexhaustible. The advantage
which the ac