More than any other competition, the Olympics reveal a love of sports that transcends cultures and places. At the same time, they invite some critical questions about the sporting
Motives are always easy to assign, unless we wish to get at the real one. Those little hypocrisies of daily life by which we elude the evils of self-analysis can blind us to our mo
A frequently recurring narrative in the writing of the history of sport tells how Christians up until the time of the Reformation viewed the body only in negative terms, as associa
While sport has been practised since pre-historic times, it is a relatively new subject of systematic philosophical enquiry. Indeed, the philosophy of sport as an academic sub-fiel
Ethical controversies have formed some of the liveliest debate in the philosophy of sport. Some of the issues arise out of the very nature of sport as a rule-governed activity,
The philosophy of sport as a separate area of philosophy is largely a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century, although previous philosophers, back to the ancient
With His Holiness Pope Francis serving as inspiration, “Sport at the Service of Humanity: The First Global Conference on Faith & Sport” was held at The Vatican in October 2016 — su
To ensure that the concern of the Holy See is expressed in the arena of Sport, an important part of contemporary culture, the Holy Father Saint John Paul II instituted in 2004 the
These are sometimes thought of contrasting with work, and associated with relaxation and leisure. But a professional sportsperson is someone for whom sport is a form work and for such a person leisure would involve not doing this. A better way then of trying to understand the nature and value of sport and play is to see them as activities that are not directed towards the production of a separable product, as say is manufacturing, but which are structured around internal aims and satisfactions. Work can then be contrasted with these as something done to achieve some independently specifiable state or product. This makes sense of the idea that this purpose might be achieved in different ways that are more or less speedy, or efficient and effective. By contrast, it is at odds with the idea of sport or play that doing it in less time, or with less effort, or with less cost, is preferable. In other words, there are intrinsic goods and pleasures involved in the very pursuit of these activities for their own sake. This indicates why some fear that the move of a sport from being an amateur to a professional activity risks damaging it, because players may no longer see it as something to be engaged for its own sake but instead come to see and value it simply as a means to an end. In fact, however, sport and play can be both good in themselves and good as means to something else, e.g. reducing stress or promoting mental health, but there remains the risk that in seeing them as instruments to a further end they lose their intrinsic value.