I can aesthetically attend to the very experience of having my experience narrowed. This is, in fact, one of the best parts of climbing—that lovely feeling of having the world disappear, all my worries about my obligations and my finances vanishing. My whole consciousness is lost in complete devotion to this one problem, this one body position, this solution.

My first-order perception of the rock is practical and focused, and therefore not aesthetic, but my second-order perception of my first-order perception is unfocused and, therefore, aesthetic.

–Games Agency As Art by C. Thi Nguyen

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action as well as choice, is held to aim at some good.  Hence people have nobly declared that the good is that at which all things aim. But there appears to be a certain difference among the ends: some ends are activities, others are certain works apart from the activities themselves, and in those cases in which there are certain ends apart from the actions, the works are naturally better than the activities.

–NICOMACHEAN ETHICS by Aristotle, Book 1, Chapter 1

I have scant experience playing games. A game can be anything from sandlot softball, playing catch with your Dad in the yard, playing Minecraft on a screen, chess with a friend, even (to stretch a bit) a certain ritual your family practices on summer vacation. Perhaps you told stories around the fire while roasting marshmallows, or you might have joined your voices to sing along with the pop tunes on the radio.

An occasion for revisiting the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle was prompted by a book on the philosophy of gaming by Nguyen which I am reading. My enjoyment of the book exceeds what I anticipated. The author shares snippets of his experience of rock climbing. Climbing walls at fitness centers are quite popular. Mind and body coordination is developed on these walls engineered for that end, as preparation for adventures in the out of doors.

I understand, I marvel at the layering, ability of synchronous attention, a primary focus upon the exigencies of solving the problem, winning over an opponent, or achieving a winning score simultaneously with a secondary notice of elegance, acknowledgement of artful foresight, or a precision of timing/strength/angle-of-attack exercised by the body in the course of achievement.

“A certain difference among the ends” that distinguishes the functionality of completing a task and the admiration merited by the manner according to which the action was taken.

The secondary notice is a work that stands all by itself.

Aesthetic joy, a rapture of excellence – a spiritual dimension that eludes the constraints of every definition, – now that my friend, is enough reason for you and I to exist.

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Always time enough for music. This one, Disappear released in 1990 by INXS fits exactly the paradigm which Aristotle advances.