Philosophy of Sport

Catalog description

(F) Sports: Not simply a pastime. Sport, athletics, and play are embedded not only in American culture but traditionally in many other cultures worldwide. In so many ways — economically, politically, socially, educationally— American society depends on individual or team sports, and vice versa. Sport and athletics constitute a kind of mirror for society: in it we see ourselves grappling with violence, justice, fairness, gender, protest, competition, meritocracy, racial tensions, in-group identification and allegiance, play, achievement, virtue, genetic advantages, objectification, economic objectification, etc. Thus the questions raised in and around sports are precisely those that are so timely and urgent in our world today. Employing perspectives from sociology, psychology, literature, biology, philosophy, political theory, economics, epistemology, ethics, ontology, phenomenology, history, and statistics, this course is an interdisciplinary exploration of sport and athletics.