Striving, entropy, and meaning

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that striving is a cardinal virtue in sport and life. It is an overlooked virtue that is an important component of human happiness and a source of a sense of dignity. The human psychological capacity for striving emerged as a trait for addressing the entropic features of our existence, but it can be engaged and used for other purposes. Sport is one such example. Sport appears exceptional in being designed specifically to test and display our capacities to strive. Although striving is connected to pursuit of excellence in sport, it supports a more democratic conception of the value of sport than achievement-oriented perfectionist accounts.

KEYWORDS:

• Striving
• resilience
• virtue
• dignity
• entropy
• paralympics
• right to play

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The ‘conatus principle’ figures in the work of Hobbes, Descartes, Leibniz, and most prominently in Spinoza’s physics and ethical theory. See Manning (2016), LeBuffe (2015), ‘Conatus’ Wikipedia.

2. ‘Striving’ is the present participle or noun form of the verb ‘strive.. The OxfordDictionaries define ‘strive’ as ‘make great efforts to achieve or obtain something’. https://premium-oxforddictionaries-com.ezproxy.langara.ca/definition/english/strive?q=striving The Cambridge English Dictionary defines it as ‘to try very hard to do something or make something happen, especially for a long time or against difficulties’. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/strive Merriam Webster’s definition is closest to the account defended here: ‘to devote serious effort or energy’ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strive

3. Pike (2019) discusses what constitutes meaningful goals in sport in ways that complement the current discussion. See also Hurka’s (2006) argument that difficulty is intrinsically valuable. An alternative suggested by the current discussion is that difficulty is instrumentally valuable for engaging intrinsically valuable capacities for striving.

4. Thanks to Kenneth Aggerholm, Alister Browne, Judy Buttress, Jesus Ilundain, Scott Kretchmar, Colin Mills, Letty Mills, Joy Russell, William Sullivan, Christopher Yorke, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. I owe particular thanks to Paul Gaffney and Mike McNamee for thoughtful commentary on earlier drafts of this paper.