What is Sport?

Given that many enthusiasts enjoy sport for aesthetic reasons in part, it is surprising that the concept of sport has received relatively little attention from philosophers.

Two principal problems leap to our attention. First, just how close is the aesthetic interest we take in sport to our interest in the arts? One is a human activity; the other a human creation. In that respect they both differ from the aesthetic appeal of natural sights and scenes. Admittedly, in most sports the principal object is winning rather than aesthetic quality, though in some sports, like ice-skating, the manner is integral to the results - marks are awarded for what is quaintly described as 'artistic merit'.

The second problem concerns its definition. How do we define a sport? It may be a solitary activity; it may not have a winner or loser; one proposal is that it requires the arbitrary selection or creation of difficulties which it is our aim to overcome.

Philosophy and Human Movement, Best, 1978

My conclusion is that to play a game is to engage in activity directed toward bringing about a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by specific rules, where the means permitted by the rules are more limited in scope than they would be in the absence of the rules, and where the sole reason for accepting such limitation is to make possible such activity.

What is a Game?, Suits, 1967

We are not primarily concerned with the wholeness of a person or an institution, as talk of integrity suggests, rather we are concerned with the proper behavior of a person participating in the activities of an institution. This behavior can show respect for the other persons who are also participating in these activities by abiding by those rules that you expect them to follow. However, a person who cheats fails to show this respect. By cheating he demonstrates that he does not regard himself as bound by the same rules that he expects everyone else to follow.

Cheating, Gert, 2000

The Sportsworld is a lived world, like those of literature and the theater, that is highly charged with human meaning. As a dramatic and symbolic world the Sportsworld has its own plots, scenes, characters, and settings. The game itself is the ritual hub of the sports universe; the team provides social structure; sports language gives the world cohesion; fans play the game vicariously through the athletes. Underneath and penetrating all the dramatic appeals is the powerful symbolism of play. The success of the Sportsworld rests on its ability to build its symbolic structure on the memory of play, on the illusion of play, and, finally, on the fantasy of play.

How We Play the Game, Lipsky, 1981

The man who wishes to achieve the longed-for victory in a race must as a boy have trained long and hard, have sweated and groaned, and abstained from wine and women.

Ars Poetica, Cicero, 412 CE

An athlete cannot bring true courage to his fights unless he has sometimes been beaten black and blue. The fighter who has seen his own blood, whose teeth have been rattled by a blow from his opponent, who has been thrown to the ground and felt the whole weight of his rival's body on him, who has not lost his spirit even when hurled about the ring, who, every time he has been knocked down, has got to his feet again more pugnacious than ever, this is the man who faces his next fight with confidence.

Moral Letters XIII, 2, c.: Seneca, 62 A. CE

For the athlete who reaches thirty-five, something in him dies; not a peripheral activity but a fundamental passion. It necessarily dies. The athlete rarely recuperates. He approaches the end of his playing days the way old people approach death. He puts his finances in order. He reminisces easily. He offers advice to the young. But, the athlete differs from an old person in that he must continue living. Behind all the years of practice and all the hours of glory waits that inexorable terror of living without the game.

Life on the Run, Bill Bradley, 1976

There are many meanings in 'how you play the game'. Certainly it means playing by the rules of the game. But playing the game properly, with justice and integrity, also requires playing by rules beyond the game. We must conform to community ideas or ideals of 'sportsmanship'. It is important in all societies to be the good sport, to be seen as acting fairly and accepting whatever life throws our way.

Rules Beyond the Game, Sidoti, 1999

As early as 1980 W.M. Brown located the ban on drugs as one of a group of rules, including amateur laws, weight categories and sex and age restrictions, which could be contrasted with constitutive rules. These former rules all limit who can play the game, as distinct from constitutive rules which limit how the game is played. The legitimisation of such rules exists within the democratic and socialised concerns of the public and ebbs and flows with changes in social, political and philosophical thought (1980:21).

Drugs, Sport and Human Rights, Burke and Roberts, 1999