Order of play - disorder of the world

In the course of the evolution of society from its ancient forms to today’s functional differentiation, the way the distinction playful/serious relates to other social distinctions has deeply changed, and this also affects the scope and significance of play. The paper analyses the relevance of play in modern society on the basis of its independence from other fields of life. Play’s loss of function in modern society is the condition to carry out this function – confirming and contradicting Huizinga's thesis about its marginalization.