Critical philosophy of sport

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Ancient origins

While the origins of philosophy of sport go back to ancient Greece and the very beginnings of Western philosophy, it is only recently experiencing a revival as an academic field. Ancient Greek athletic ideals were clearly highlighted in the Olympics and went to the heart of what of what constituted an education that involved a synthesis of body, mind and spirit. An emphasis of the disciplined and healthy body was also fundamental and integral to Greek drama, music, dance and poetry as performance which was seen as having a beneficial effect on mind and body. Other bodily arts as diverse as making pottery, building and the arts of the military required both an esthetics and an emphasis understanding the body and its functioning. Athletic training was part of military training and was linked to various demonstrations, competitions, and games, supporting the view that sport is essentially a form of competition and play. In the Minoan and Mycenean Civilizations dating from 2000 BCE acrobats in bull leaping, boxing, running, discus and javelin throwing, archery, wrestling and chariot-racing were depicted in palace frescoes and on pottery vases.¹ The Pentathlon, a contest of five events, and the Pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, were both part of the ancient Olympics and have been revived in the modern context.

The first Olympic Games held in 776 BC (estimated) based on the idea of peaceful meetings between rival powers emphasized sport as a form of competition and entertainment but also the confirmation of an educational ideal. The Games were held at Olympia but also at Delphi, Isthmus and Nemea. Sport was an integral aspect of Greek life and indicated an educational ideal of excellence (arete) of the mind and body.

The word ‘sport’ did not appear until the mid-Eighteenth century. Dr Johnson records Shakespearean usage of the word (Richard III) to mean ‘divert, frolic, game trifle’ in his A Dictionary of the English Language² alongside a myriad of other uses. The word in English was used as a verb in late Middle English to mean ‘past-time’ or ‘entertainment’ – a shortening of ‘disport’, an Old French word (desporter, deporter c. 1400) to mean ‘divert, amuse, please, play; to seek amusement,’ literally ‘carry away’ (the mind from serious matters). In the early fifteenth century the word consolidated around the concept of ‘relaxation’ and ‘game’ and became preserved in phrases such as ‘in sport’ meaning ‘in jest’. The notion of ‘game involving physical exercise was first recorded in the 1520s. ‘Sport’ meaning ‘good fellow’ is recorded in 1881.³

This early modern usage in English and French really differs considerable from the Ancient Greek usage that revolved around athletics that philosophically involved the pursuit of excellence (arete), the virtuous life as moderation (sophrosyne), the significance of power (dynamis) to accept physical or bodily limitations and improve one’s body through athletic discipline (askesis), the notion of play (paidia), and the all prevailing concept of kalokagathia meaning the ‘beautiful and the good’ (Dombrowski, 2009). This was a philosophy that included girls or young unmarried women in Sparta.

There has been a rekindling of interest in contemporary philosophy of sport following the publication of Paul Weiss’(1969) book Sport: A Philosophical Inquiry that investigated primarily athletics in terms of the universal culture of games as a ‘traditionalized set of rules to be exemplified by men who try to be excellent in and through their bodies’ (p. 143). Bemoaning the lack of philosophical resources and the fact that none of the great philosophers gave sport anything more than a passing reference Weiss (1969) embarks on his study with the following remark:

The present study makes but a beginning in a new enterprise, the examination of sport in terms of principles which are to be at once revelatory of the nature of sport and pertinent to other fields—indeed, to the whole of things and knowledge. The result is a work on philosophy, and not in sport. It is a work in philosophy just as philosophy of history or a philosophy of art is a work in philosophy and not in history or in art (p. viii).

He goes on to investigate the concern for excellence, the attraction of athletics, the challenge of the body, dedicated men, the equipped body, health, the athlete in action with an emphasis on speed endurance, strength, accuracy, and coordination, play, sport and game, winning, amateurs and professionals, women athletes and the standardization of sport. He writes:

Sport does not interest only the young; it interests almost everyone. The fact compels a pause. Why are so many deeply involved, so caught up emotionally in athletic events? Are they in the grip of some basic drive? Do they only express some accidentally acquired cultural habit of admiration for successful violence? Are they really interested in perfection? Does it give them a special kind of pleasure? (p. 4)

These are the questions that motivate Weiss to attempt a philosophical analysis of athletics (rather than sport) and he castigates philosophy for not having been interested in such a ‘low-grade’ and popular past time but more oriented to the lofty, genteel and respectable. This is a good point and indicates a philosophical blind-spot and bias in the western tradition that avoids what is seen to be routine, trivial or leisure-based for ordinary people (the aristocratic assumption).

Since the publication of Weiss’ (1969) book the field of philosophy of sport has experience a renewal in the twenty-first century. Drew Hyland (1998) wrote the entry on philosophy of sport for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy suggesting that as a separate area of philosophy it really is a product of the late twentieth century focusing on ‘sport and ethics, questions concerning sport and society, the issue of self-knowledge in sport, the mind–body problem as it relates to sport, sport and art, and the controversy over the possibility of defining certain key terms within sport, such as sport, game, play and athletics.’ He indicates that there are several major debates within the theme of sport and society including whether sport teaches values and if so are they desirable; the way in which society problems like racism are manifest in sport; and the athlete as cultural hero. A major topic revolves around sport and the psychology, spiritual and ethics of self-knowledge which also impinges on the mind-body problem.⁴

The International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS, https://iaps.net/) was established in 1972 changing its name in 1999 ‘to stimulate, encourage, and promote study, research, and writing in the philosophy of sporting (and related) activity; to demonstrate the relevance of philosophic thought concerning sport to matters of professional concern’ among other things. The Journal of the Philosophy of Sport (Taylor & Francis) dates from 1974 with two-three issues per year and recent special issues on Emotions in Sport and Games, Teamwork and Aesthetics in Sport. Sports, Ethics and Philosophy the journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association focuses on ‘applied philosophy that engage with issues or practice, policy and scholarship concerning the nature and values of sports’ (https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsep20). It was established in 2007 with three issues per year and recent special issues on Sport and Spirituality, Sports, Ethics and Neurophilosophy, Skill, Knowledge and Expertise, Sport and Play in a Digital World, The Aesthetics of Football.⁵ The Journal for the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education is a Japanese journal of two issues per year dating back to 1979.

Steven Connor’s (2011) A Philosophy of Sport raises afresh philosophical questions concerning why humans play sport, invent games and whether playing sport is ethical, creative or a form of violence. He considers the materiality of sport, its embeddedness in the objects we use to play; and the generic place of rules, chance, cheating and winning. David Papineau’s (2019) Knowing the Score: What Sports Can Teach Us About Philosophy (And What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Sports) are two recent books, among many, that demonstrates the field is flourishing.⁶ There is less concern about how one should think the ‘philosophy of sport’ with greater attention to its form and how best to write about it in reflective terms.

There was a practical interest in the nineteenth century in physical education and the link to questions of health, competition, teamwork and leadership (Zeigler, 1979). Physical education has always been a strong part of sport and sport pedagogy and philosophy. Steven Stolz (2014) writes: ‘The discipline area of physical education has historically struggled for legitimacy, sometimes being seen as a non-serious pursuit in educational terms compared to other subjects within the school curriculum.’ He argues in a book, the first of its kind in thirty years, that ‘rather than relegating the body to “un-thinking” learning, a person’s essential being is not confined to their rationality but involves an embodied dimension.’ And he ‘traces the changing conceptions of the body, in philosophy and theology, that have influenced our understanding of physical education and sport, and investigates the important role that embodiment and movement play in learning about, through and in physical education.’ He defends physical education as a necessary part of the education of the whole person.

The philosophy of sport has strong connections and overlaps also with sociology of sport. The World Congress of Sociology held their 2019 meeting on the sociology of sport at Otago University, New Zealand recently, recognizing that the field is

facing unprecedented challenges not only over funding and resources, but also in terms of its legitimacy and relevance. Within the context of neoliberalism in general, and the corporatisation of university education in particular, there has been a slow but steady marginalisation of sociology of sport as a field of academic study.

https://www.otago.ac.nz/issa-2019/index.html.

There has been huge growth in interest in ‘sport’ the global economy and as a focus of scholarly enquiry. The programme notes: ‘Both state and private interests are increasingly aware of sports’ strategic location at the intersection of key sectors of society including: education, health, business and tourism/nation branding.’ And there is a recognition that there is wide interest in sport from across the social sciences and humanities that together ‘are increasingly recognizing the social significance of sport as a cultural form and practice’.⁷

Sport is such a complex subject that it requires multidisciplinary approaches which is in part the remit for a critical philosophy of sport that can recognize sport as embedded within markets where competition has a double aspect – winning (often at all costs) means economic viability and global ascendency.

Critical philosophy of sport

A landmark collection of four volumes by R. Scott Kretchmar and Peter Hopsicker (2015) entitled Philosophy of Sport: critical concepts in sports studies is a compilation of articles that address first, the philosophy of games, play, and sport (Vol. 1); ethics in sport (Vol. 2), sport and its contribution to axiology and the good life (Vol. 3), and knowledge gained through sport and its potential for education (Vol. 4). These are largely a selection of essays taken from back issues of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Sports, Ethics and Philosophy.

Yet there is something more required by contemporary philosophy of sport that in this essay we term ‘critical’ which avoids the universal to emphasize by contrast history and political economy and is turned toward investigating questions of power, economy and philosophy in issues such as:

• the rise of professionalism and the loss of amateur codes

• the growth and influence of new sports

• the influence of technology in sports measurement

• the rise of women’s professional sport

• women’s participation in sport

• national strategies and funding of sports organizations

• internationalization and ‘world cups’

• the privatization and commercialization of sport

• sports contractual law

• the rise of sports science and medicine

• the rise of sports psychology and management

• sports coaching and organization

• the history and philosophy of sport organization and training in schools

• media franchises and representations of sport

• the global commercialization of sport

In this configuration of themes there is room for the consideration of issues to do with subjectivity and sport focused on ‘personal growth’, identity, gender and sexuality (transsexuality and gender competition), paralympian sports, and themes to do with national identity and mass spectator sports. The question of identity in terms of membership of club sports and sporting allegiances in general is a critical question. My guess is that many citizens think of themselves, for example, as a member of Manchester United than being British or English. In addition, the issue of the rise of national and international sports administration and law, especially focused on performance-enhanced sport through illegal substances are interesting questions, and the analysis of nationally sponsored sports teams and sports training and education is a useful study.

In this context some attention might be paid to the global sports economy – its scope, its investment patterns, and returns to the nation, club and community. This might also include an analysis of sport grants and state aid by national sport organizations, the infrastructure of sports clubs, and the role of sport in relation to recreation and entertainment. Sport has a huge role in branding and sport broadcasting as well as sponsorship of all major sports products. The revenues of football clubs and the world’s highest paid footballers stretch into the hundreds of billions of dollars with individual footballers attaining many millions of dollars (Kennedy, 2012). When we take into account professional sports like football, basketball, baseball, race cars, gridiron football, rugby, cycling, tennis, golf etc. and sport tourism and media the issue of political economy of sport becomes central to the emerging economy of sport, to promotional culture, to questions of national identity and patriotism, and to performance culture. Philosophy of sport cannot ignore these issues or how they impinge of the broader conception of sport. In other words, sports today cannot be separated from the capitalist market system for its contemporary form is determined by it and there is little chance that it is going to change any day soon.

In a major sense in terms of political economy sport has contributed to globalization, (constitutes a certain kind of globalization), and to the development of national, regional and local identities in the postcolonial and global age. In a word, they contribute to a global sports culture and economy driven by the global sports event (Nauright, 2004) even though there is little guidance on the role of organized sport in society or its commercial exploitation (Szymanski, 2000). The sports industry has been calculated to be the sixth biggest in the US and 22nd biggest in the world (Allison 2006, p. 5). An A.T. Kearney report suggests that the global sports industry is between $480-620 US billion.⁸ Lincoln Allison (2006) suggests there are two ‘exceptionalisms’ that characterize the political economy of sport: ‘The first is that the process of its establishment modern sport [in Britain] was located in neither the commercial nor the state sector, but somewhere else: in “civil society” or the “voluntary sector”’. He continues:

The social and economic elites who established modern sport – whose selection of athletic events still dominates global track and field athletics, for example – made a strong assumption in favour of the exclusion of the state sector and showed a strong determination to exclude the commercial sector (p. 3).

He focuses on the peculiar relationship between the global and the international in sport arguing:

It has often been argued that there are fewer obstacles to globalisation and borderlessness in sport than in any other field. Sport in general and some sports in particular – most notably track and field and soccer – have a universal project and appeal There are fewer obstacles in the form of ideological and linguistic barriers in the labour market and the image market to the progress of this project than in any other field (p. 4).

These questions of economy and political economy flow over into the sociology, anthropology, media and philosophy of sport. Sport is a leading sector of the global economy where one global sporting event can lead to the building of sport infrastructure and can contribute to national and international ‘spread effects’. It constitutes the philosophical framework within which sport in now defined and also how it contributes to the growing globality and interconnectedness of the world.

Michael A. Peters
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China
[email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 http://pijet.com/2007/04/04/olympic-games/

2 https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/search-johnsons-dictionary/?SearchValue=sport

3 https://www.etymonline.com/word/sport

4 See also https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/philosophy_ethics_sport.pdf which provides a brief introduction to the philosophy and ethics of sport and an annotated bibliography.

5 See McNamee (2007) editorial on the history of the journal.

6 See also David Papineau (2019), interviewed by Nigel Warburton, https://fivebooks.com/best-books/david-papineau-philosophy-sport/, on five most important books on the philosophy of sport.

7 https://www.otago.ac.nz/issa-2019/scientific-programme/

8 https://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/6f46b880-f8d1-4909-9960-cc605bb1ff34