Theory and philosophy of game in Mandelshtam's poetry

In the article general theory of game in philosophy and cultural science is analyzed (J.Hejzinga, G.Gadamer, E.Fink, R.Kajua, M.Epstein), and an attempt to make a system of classifications of various types of games is undertaken. Philosophy of game is considered in the context of culture of the Silver Age on the data presented by the lyrics of one of the brightest representatives of the epoch - Osip Mandelshtam. Game is interpreted as a factor which determined the evolution of art thinking of the poet. The dominant (spontaneity - play or orderliness - game) in the ambivalent phenomenon of game is concretized by a particular historical situation. The constant is an idea of struggle against the spontaneous pernicious phenomenon in a form of chaos or time. The poet opposes laws of destruction to creative logic and this explains why special attention in the article is paid to the game-art concept as a model of ontological relations and a means of the world cognition.