Sport as meaningful narratives

Abstract

Though many scholars have made claims as to the nature of sport, this article argues that these claims tend to narrowly focus on modern ideas derived primarily from Western competitive sport. Thus, most notions of sport fail to capture how various historical and non-Western cultures valued sport. In an attempt to provide a broader and more durable description of the nature of sport, this article argues that sports are fundamentally about telling a story about ourselves. These stories are meaningful narratives. Meaningful narratives, the article argues, exist in three ways: the individual, the collaborative, and the collective. By seeing sport as inherently about ‘a story we tell ourselves about ourselves’, the article concludes that not only do philosophers realize a more complete understanding of what sport is about but also receive and apply this understanding to normative debates within sport ethics.

Keywords:

• Narratives
• nature of sport
• Geertz

Notes

1. I wish to acknowledge Ask Vest Christiansen and Tim Lehrbach for feedback on early drafts of this paper. Their efforts considerably improved the final draft of this article while helping me avoid some critical errors.