Push-pin (game)
Push-pin was an English child's game played from the 16th until the 19th centuries. It is also known as "put-pin", and it is similar to Scottish games called "Hattie" and "Pop the Bonnet".[1] In philosophy it has been used as an example of a relatively worthless form of amusement.
Rules
In push-pin each player sets one pin (needle) on a table and then tries to push his pin across his opponent's pin.[2] The game is played by two or more players.
In "Pop the Bonnet", or "hattie", players place two pins on the brim of a hat. They take turns tapping or "popping" on the sides of the hat trying to cause pins to cross one another. Whichever player causes them to cross takes the pins.[3] [4] This was a form of gambling, where a player could win or lose their pins, which were valuable as a rare imported commodity at that time.
Boys and men might stash several pins on a sleeve or lapel to be prepared to play.[5]
References in philosophy
Push-pin was immortalized by Jeremy Bentham when he wrote in The Rationale of Reward that "Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry."[6] John Stuart Mill, who disagreed with Bentham on this point, misquotes Bentham as saying, "Push-pin is as good as poetry."[7] Mill's version is now widely attributed to Bentham.
Notes
- ↑ Francis Willughby's Book of Games ISBN 1-85928-460-4
- ↑ Gomme, Alice Bertha, Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Vol. 2 (London: David Nutt, 1898), p. 86
- ↑ Gomme, 's%20traditional%20games%20england%20push-pin&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q=%22pop%20the%20bonnet%22&f=false, p. 64
- ↑ Gomme, p.199
- ↑ ANNALS of PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA, VOL. II Chapter 42 FINAL APPENDIX of the YEAR 1856. NOTES and REFLECTIONS on SOCIAL CHANGES and PROGRESS IN GENERAL
- ↑ Bentham, Jeremy, The Rationale of Reward (London: Robert Heward, 1830), p. 206
- ↑ Mill, J.S., "Bentham," in Dissertations and Discussions, Vol. I (London: Parker, 1859), p. 389