124 Corrado, Basso, and Thiene, âEssay: Sudden death in young athletes,â p. 48. ..... such as Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich) were excluded from races as a result.
Philosophic Reflections in Sport A Collection of Essays
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Philosophic Reflections in Sport A Collection of Essays Edited by Milan HOSTA
E-book published by: SPOLINT Institute, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Policy, and Diplomacy in Sport Slovenia www.spolint.org
© Copyrights Please respect the rights of the authors. This collection book was written as a result of work prepared within the 35th Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, which took place in Ljubljana, September 2007
_______________________________________________________________________ CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana
796.01:1(082) PHILOSOPHIC reflections in sport : a collection of essays / edited by Milan Hosta. - Ljubljana : International Institute for Sustainable Development, Policy, and Diplomacy in Sport, 2010 ISBN 978-961-92952-0-5 1. Hosta, Milan 252866304
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ETHICS IN SPORT 1. THE ROLE OF CARDINAL VIRTUES IN SPORT Jernej Pisk 2. SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ETHICS OF PROFESSIONAL SPORT Luca Gasbarro 3. THE BODY AND TECHNOLOGY – A CONTRIBUTION TO THE BIOETHICAL DEBATE ON SPORT Ivana Zagorac 4. THE PREVENTIVE APPLICATION OF GENE TECHNOLOGY IN SPORTS – ETHICAL ASPECTS or What about the good side of frankenstein‟s monster? Arno Müller 5. MANDATORY DNA TESTING IN CYCLING: THE ROLE OF GENETIC SCIENCE IN CONSTRUCTING THE CREDIBLE PERFORMANCE Ivo van Hilvoorde 6. PARTICIPATION VERSUS PERFORMANCE INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS Adam G. Pfleegor
IN
AMERICAN
PHENOMENOLOGY IN SPORT 7. BODY EXPERIENCE AND TECHNIQUES OF THE SELF Rui Machado Gomes 8. THE INFLUENCE OF SPORT ACTIVITIES ONTO THE ONE'S VIEW OF HUMAN BEINGS: A phenomenological consideration of the human body Fumio Takizawa 9. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “REGARD” AND HUMAN MOVEMENT IN SPORTS: a consideration from the phenomenological viewpoint Koji Takahashi 10. MISGIVINGS REGARDING THE RESERVED BODY SEEN AMONG THE JAPANESE YOUTHS Hideaki Onuki
SPIRITUALITY AND MEANING IN SPORT
11. THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE: PHILOSOPHICAL (SELF-)REFLECTIONS ON SPORT AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza
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12. CULTIVATION AND MARTIAL ARTS Maja Milčinski 13. THE ONE AND ONLY MEANING OF (SPORT) LIFE - TO THE MAIN CORE Børge M. Oftedal 14. TOWARDS A NEW PHYSICAL CULTURE; AN ACTIVIST‟S CRITIQUE OF SPORT Milan Hosta
RELIGION, MYTH AND SPORT 15. TOURISM AND SACRUM Jerzy Kosiewicz 16. SPORT MYTHS AND THE MODERN IDEOLOGY OF SPORTS Radim Šíp
AESTHETICS IN SPORT 17. MUST WE KEEP ON SPEAKING ABOUT ART IN SPORT? A claim for the Aesthetics of Sport Lacerda, O. Teresa
PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN SPORT 18. THOMAS HOBBES - A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF SPORT PHILOSOPHY: Metaphor of a race Giuseppe Sorgi
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ETHICS IN SPORT
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THE ROLE OF CARDINAL VIRTUES IN SPORT Jernej Pisk
Abstract In the last decades virtue ethics in sport has gained much attention. This is not surprising because it seems that some characteristics of this ethical theory successfully respond to very complex situations in sport. The experience shows that merely rules of particular sport do not assure moral sport actions. Already Plato has pointed out that there are two guides of moral actions: laws (or rules) directing us from outside and virtues directing us from inside. He was convinced that virtues are better than laws, since it does not make any sense to promulgate laws among non-virtues persons, because they will disregard them. On the other hand the virtues people are able to find out what is good and what is not regardless of laws. Therefore, it is important to become a good person, since only then also laws or rules make sense. Plato exposes four main virtues: justice, prudence (wisdom), courage (fortitude), and temperance (moderation, self-control). But the question arises why only four virtues and not more? Plato responds that these four virtues represent the whole of virtues. (Republic, 428a) These virtues are evidently connected with Plato‘s construction of human soul. But these four cardinal virtues are not the only virtues, neither in Plato‘s philosophy, but they are the 'hinges', on which all the other virtues turn. They are the necessary foundation and prerequisite for all the others. So, which role can be ascribed to cardinal virtues in sport? For Plato the first and the most important is virtue of justice. It seems that it is also preferential in sport, especially when we think about sport competitions. But, as emphasized the medieval philosophy the source of justice and other virtues is reason. Reason is the essence of human nature and of all moral acts. Therefore to act in accordance with reason – to have the virtue of prudence is the first demand. While prudence refers to individual alone, justice refers to others. Every sport competition, contest, is therefore the field of virtue of justice. The basis of justice is to give everyone his due. Justice put us in a position of a debtor to a fellow-man. This requires that we play fair and honorable. Therefore donated victory is not righteous because it is not owed. Besides that, virtue of justice arranges matters between the individuals and between the individual and community which has a great impact on morality in sport. The third virtue is courage that is directed towards individual itself. Plato already recognizes sport activity as a main mean for development of this virtue. (Laches, 190c) To be courageous and to endure till the end is the essence of courage. It is obvious that courage is essential for any quality sport. The last one is the virtue of temperance which is also directed towards individual itself. At a first glance it appears not suitable for modern times. But, if we take a closer look it can be seen that the athletes cannot succeed without renounce of many unnecessary things.
Introduction In the last decades virtue ethics in sport has gained much attention. This is not surprising because it seems that some characteristics of this ethical theory successfully respond to very complex situations in everyday life as well as in sport.1 Experiences show us that merely rules 1
Virtue ethics is not important only in sport. In general, as J.L.A. Garcia wrote “proponents of virtue ethics maintain that it has certain advantages over more modern alternatives. They argue that virtue ethics is properly concrete, because it grounds morality in facts about human nature or about the concrete development of particular cultural traditions, in contrast with modernist attempts to ground morality in subjective preference or in abstract principles of reason. They also claim that virtue ethics is truer to human psychology in concentrating
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of particular sport do not assure moral sport actions. Plato has already pointed out that there are two guides of moral actions: laws (or rules) which direct us from outside and virtues which direct us from inside.2 He was convinced that virtues are better than laws, since it does not make any sense to promulgate laws among non-virtues persons, because they will disregard them. On the other hand virtues people are able to find out what is good and what is not regardless of laws. (Republic, 427a). Therefore, it is important to become a good person, since only then also laws or rules make sense. Plato3 exposes four main virtues: justice, prudence (wisdom), courage (fortitude), and temperance (moderation, self-control).4 (Republic, 427e). But the question arises why only four virtues and not more? Plato responds that these four virtues represent the whole of virtues. (Republic, 428a; Phaedo 69b).5 These virtues are evidently tightly connected with Plato‘s structure of the human soul. But these four cardinal6 virtues are not the only virtues, neither in Plato‘s philosophy, but they are the 'hinges', on which all the other virtues turn. They are the necessary foundation and precondition for all the others. ”If a person is not courageous, for instance, he will not overcome the difficulties inherent in the practice of any virtue. If he is not wise, he will not understand what he is doing, and his virtue will sink to the level of blind animal instinct.”7
What is virtue? Before we emphasize the role of each of the four cardinal virtues in sport, we will take a quick look into the essence, the main characteristic of virtues themselves. What is virtue? In general we can say that virtue is a habit to do good. Moreover virtues are good habits and vices are bad habits. While we will discuss mainly moral virtues good must be understood as morally good. But, what is morally good? An answer to this question is tightly connected with questions of what is natural and what is the essence of the human being as from the answer of what is natural for human being we can conclude what is morally good, what is virtuous for him.
on the less conscious aspects of motivation – on relatively stable dispositions, habits, and long term goals, for example – where modern ethics focused on decision making directed by principles and rules. Virtue ethics, some say, offers more unified and comprehensive conception of moral life. /…/ Proponents of virtue ethics also contend that, without the sensitivity and appreciation of their situation and its opportunities that only virtues consistently make available, agents cannot properly apply the rules that modernist ethical theories offer to guide their actions.” (J.L.A. Garcia, »Virtue ethics«, in: The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge 1996, p. 841.) 2 Plato, Republic 427a. Similar asserted also Thomas Aquinas (e.g. A. A. Maurer, Srednjeveška filozofija zahoda (Medieval philosophy), p. 201). 3 In the history of philosophy we can recognize four main philosophers whose ethics is based on virtues: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Therefore our research will be more or less focused on their theories. 4 However, these four virtues were not Plato's invention. “As early as Aeschylus (Sept. 610), we find this canon of the four so-called Platonic virtues mentioned as the sum of a citizen's virtue. Plato took it over en block from the ethical system of the early Greek city-state.” (W. Jaeger, Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Vol.1: Archaic Greece. The Mind of Athens. (second edition) (transl. G. Highet) Oxford University Press. Oxford, New York 1973, p. 106.) The same four virtues can be also found in Pindar‘s Odes (Isthmian Odes 8, 24-28) and in the Old Testament of the Bible “If one love justice, the fruits of her works are virtues; For she teaches moderation and prudence, justice and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful for men than these.” (Wis 8,7). 5 These four virtues are not something rigid. In different places Plato mentioned also other virtues (e.g. Republic 402c, 536a; Meno 74a; Protagoras 330b, 349b). 6 In the patristic time st. Ambrosius (De sacr. 3,2,9; Expos. In Lucam 5,62-68) named them virtutes cardinales or virtutes principales (from Latin cardo, 'hinge') because of their pivotal role in human flourishing. After that the name ‗cardinal‘ for these four virtues got accepted. 7 P. Kreeft, ―Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation: The Four Cardinal Virtues‖. In: Back to Virtue. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986, p. 59-70.
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As already mentioned, Plato was one of the first who defined and discussed cardinal virtues. He connected his ‗theory‘ of virtues with his ‗theory‘ of the human soul. The soul is in the center of interest in Plato‘s philosophy. Why? Because the soul‘s health is a necessary prerequisite to be a morally good human being. But to achieve the health of the soul the soul has to be in proper order and in ‗good shape‘. This includes also purgation of the soul where ―temperance, and justice, and courage, and wisdom herself are the purgation.‖8 In other words: Virtue can be simply understood as a health of the soul. Moreover justice, the overall virtue in Plato‘s teaching, can be understood as the harmony of the soul, like health is the harmony of the body. Therefore it is not surprising that Plato highly estimated virtues. As he said: “All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.”9 After Plato also Aristotle valued virtues very high in the moral life. He listed many different virtues. In general we can say that for him the essence of any virtue is the golden mean. But let us make a jump to the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose ethics is based on four cardinal virtues.10 His reflections on virtues had a great impact on a modern virtue ethics. Aquinas emphasizes that we need virtues because of three main reasons: to act uniform, fast and in accordance with right reason. Without virtuous habits man could not work in accordance with reason automatically (without wasting too much time with thinking).11 Without virtues every single human act would become too complicated, because awareness of a single move would hamper its effectiveness. Acting in accordance with virtue we can compare with driving a car. At the beginning it is very complicated to control all the necessary switches, but after we acquire a habit or virtue of driving a car driving becomes very simple, our actions are almost automatic. As Aquinas stated: “Virtue concerns something very complex on its own, but for the one who possess it becomes very simple.”12 Aquinas said that virtue is a power which directs human being towards the good. But, what is a good for the human being? As Aquinas said, “what is a good for the human depends on how we look on him. Human proper good, as far as is human, is good of reason, because human is a reasonable being. A good of the human as an artist is the good of art; of a human as a politician is the good of civic community.”13 And the good of the athlete is high performance. So, virtues alone are not the final goal. The final goal is happiness.14 And virtues are necessary for the life tending toward final happiness.15 Aquinas‘ teaching on virtues corresponds well with P. Weiss‘ findings about habits acquired in sport: “It is sometimes contented that athletics not only builds bodies but character. Character, it has long been known, is best forged by making men face crises in the little; by being pushed up against limits they define themselves. If they are made to do this again and
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Plato, Phaedo 69 b-c. Trans. Benjamin Jowett.
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Plato, Laws 726a-729a. Beside four cardinal virtues Aquinas emphasizes also three so called 'theological' virtues: faith, hope and love (charity). 11 E.g. T. Aquinas, QDVC 1 (Quaestiones disputatae de virtutibus in communi). See also: F. Copleston, Akvinski (Aquinas). (Slo. transl.), p. 229-230. 12 T. Aquinas, QDVC 2, 2. 13 T. Aquinas, QDVC 2, 2. 14 Virtue ethic theory is eudaimnonistic in its essence, as well as all other ethical theory until the age of enlightenment. 15 E.g. A. MacIntyre, Kratka zgodovina etike (Short History of Ethics), p. 72. 10
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again in the same areas, firm habits are established, enabling the men to act without much reflection and yet with surety and precision.”16 From above presented essential characteristics of virtues two different kinds of virtues can be discerned in sport: moral virtues and virtues of movement.17 The first – moral virtues – are virtues of human moral behaviour (conduct, actions). (Into this category also four cardinal virtues belong.) If we talk about moral good sport it presupposes a moral good man; a virtues man. Only virtues man – athlete – can add to the rules of sport exactly what they are lacking but they need if they want to create a moral good sport, a so called ‗fair play‘. It is known that just rules or laws are not enough for the ‗spirit of fair play‘. To be ‗fair‘ means to do what you were not obliged to do if you would just follow rules or laws since rules or laws can never predict and regulate all the possible situations. Therefore just because of that, ‗fair play‘ acts have greater moral value than just to do one‘s duty. We experience this in sport as well as in everyday life. To conclude, only the whole of both - the one coming from outside of the man (rules or laws) and the one coming from inside (virtues) can assure and make possible a good and fair played sport. The morality of sport therefore depends one the morality of a man.18 The second kind of virtue that can be found in sport is a virtue of movement. It does not have any explicit moral connotation, however it is still a virtue (although not the moral nor the cardinal one). As we saw above the characteristic of virtue includes simplicity, gentleness, easiness in acting. And that is exactly what it can be found in perfect execution of the sport movement – although it could be very complex and made with big power, it looks very gentle, it seems to be very simple and easy. This is also the characteristic of the virtue. Although it deals with difficult (moral) problems the decision seems to be very easy – it is led by habits which allow man to act in the right way without hesitation and difficulties. Without already acquired virtues, everyday decisions would get too complex and too difficult. But habit is not the ‗routine‘, it is freely made, in man, by repeated acts. P. Weiss wrote about this virtue or wisdom of movement as follows: “The wisdom that the athlete needs is schematically presented in him because of what he did in the past. By going through comparable acts again and again under controlled conditions, he builds up the power of quickly estimating what a situation demands and how he is to behave in it. Without the habit, he will be forced to spend too much time in deliberating or experimenting when he has to be right, fast.”19 Now we will take a closer look to the first kind of virtues in sport – to moral virtues, especially to the role of four cardinal virtues in sport. Prudence20 Plato and Aristotle thought that the first and the most important virtue is the virtue of justice, because, as they said, in justice all the other virtues are included (Platon, Republic 433b; Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1129b 27). It seems that it is also preferential in sport, especially when we think about ethical problems of sport competitions. But, as medieval philosophy especially emphasizes, the source of justice and other virtues is a reason. Reason is the essence of the human nature and of all moral acts. Therefore to act in accordance with reason – to have the 16
P. Weiss, Sport, a philosophic inquiry, p. 28-29. Greek word for virtue areté do not concern only morality, but goodness of any thing, e.g the areté of knife is to cut sharply. Similar, the areté (virtue) of athlete is to perform well. 18 For the comment of metaphysical connection between human (as a substance) and sport (as an accidence) see: Pisk, J., ˝Sport and Being as Being˝. In: Philosophy of Sport and Other Essays, Ljubljana 2003, pp. 159-163. 19 P. Weiss, c. w., p.90. 20 English translation of Greek word phrónesis, and Latin prudentia. 17
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virtue of prudence is the first demand. Although that Plato and Aristotle explicitly put reason only in the second place among four cardinal virtues, they implicitly recognized their pivotal role in guidance. Plato said: “Is there not one true coin for which all things ought to be exchanged? And that is wisdom;21 and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage or temperance or justice.‖22 After Plato Aquinas asserts that good actions are only those whose source is rooted in reason. Why? Aquinas: “It must be observed that the nature of a thing is chiefly the form from which that thing derives its species. Now man derives his species from his rational soul: and consequently whatever is contrary to the order of reason is, properly speaking, contrary to the nature of man, as man; while whatever is in accord with reason, is in accord with the nature of man, as man. Now man's good is to be in accord with reason, and his evil is to be against reason.”23 With regard to the source of the actions, either in a reason or outside a reason (will or appetites) Aquinas distinguishes between ‗human acts‘ (actus humani) and 'acts of human' (actus hominis). Only the first ones, whose source is in reason, are truly moral acts and are morally good or bad. On the other hand, the reflex actions, although made by human, are not human acts, because their source is not in the freedom of reason. Therefore “moral acts are the same as human acts.”24 The role of the prudence is therefore cognition (comprehension) and making decision. “When comprehending prudence it is directed toward reality and when giving orders it is directed towards will and action.”25 Next characteristic of prudence is ‗perspicacity‘ which allows fast decisions in every situation, and beside that, it fights against temptation of unjustness and cowardice. This bears a great importance for sport. In sport there is seldom plenty of time to think what to do in this particular situation. On the contrary: usually (morally important) decisions are made in a moment. Similar states also P. Weiss: “Everyone of them (sports) offers a test of a man‟s capacity to judge and to control himself.”26 And: “He (the athlete) does not allow his body to react to whatever stimulus happens to be operative.”27 Therefore the virtue of prudence in sport is not limited just to support other virtues, but it has its special working area. It is directly connected with the control of body (parts) movement where prudence plays a great importance. Better the athlete is, better developed virtue of prudence he must have. Numerous hours of sport‘s training are therefore directed into development of this special field (part) of prudence. Here we must emphasize that there is not important just a link in one direction: from mind to body. Often overlooked is link in another
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There is no agreement in translation of Plato's words for cardinal virtue connected with reason. As P. Kreeft stress we can distinguish between wisdom, prudence and art: “‟Wisdom‟ is speculative knowledge (the knowledge of first causes); „prudence‟ is practical knowledge (the knowledge of what to do); „art‟ is productive knowledge (the knowledge of what to make).” (P. Kreeft, Summa of the Summa, p. 450.) 22 Platon, Phaedo 69 a-b. 23 Aquinas, STh I, II, 71, 2. 24 Aquinas, STh I, II, 1, 3. 25 J. Pieper, Razumnost in pravičnost (Prudence and justice), p. 17. 26 P. Weiss, w. c., p. 34. 27 P. Weiss, w. c., p. 68.
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direction: from body to mind. What can body tell us? What truth and wisdom can body teach us?28 The basic role of a virtue of prudence in sport is therefore to recognize a real good in different situations and to choose proper means and acts for realization of it. And because the prudence is foundation and source for all of other virtues it is not possible to educate people for justice, fortitude or temperance if they are not prudent. The athletes are obviously not an exception here.
Justice While prudence refers to the individual alone (and from individual through other virtues to all the others), justice refers to the others. But not only to them. As Plato exposed justice is the health or harmony of the soul.29 Justice is not just an external relationship between two or more people, but also and first of all the internal relationship within each individual among the parts of the soul. About this Plato‘s view P. Kreeft wrote: “The harmony is hierarchical, not egalitarian. When World follows Man, when within Man Body follows Soul, when within Soul Appetites follow Will and Will follows Reason (Wisdom), we have justice. When the hierarchy is inverted, we have injustice. Will leading Reason is rationalization and propaganda; Appetites leading Will is greed; Body leading Soul is animalism; World leading Man is unfreedom. Justice is individual before it is social.”30 After we achieve justice inside of us, we can make a step further to justice in the community. As Aquinas emphasized: “It is proper to justice, as compared with the other virtues, to direct man in his relations with others. /…/ On the other hand the other virtues perfect man in those matters only which befit him in relation to himself.”31 The importance of justice for the community emphasized also Immanuel Kant when he said that misery of people is based more on unjustice of people than on accidents.32 There are different kinds of justice but all of them are summarized in a statement that justice is “Rendering to each one his right.”33 This idea can be found in Homers Odyssey34, in Plato‘s Republic35, Aristotle36, Cicero37, Ambrose38, Augustine39 and Roman law. Since justice deals with others every sport, especially group and team sport and sport competition, con-test, is the field where the virtue of justice is displayed. As we saw above, the essence of justice is to give everyone his owe therefore it puts us in the position of a debtor to a fellowman.40 And this could be a starting point for thinking about justice in sport. 28
See: J. Pisk: ―‗Mislim, torej sem‘ in vrednost športa danes‖ (‗Cogito, ergo sum‘ and the value of contemporary sport). In: Šport 1, 2007, pp. 41-43. 29 Plato, Republic 443d. 30 P. Kreeft, ―Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation: The Four Cardinal Virtues‖. In: Back to Virtue. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986, p. 59-70. 31
T. Aquinas, STh II, II, 57,1. E.g. I. Kant, Eine Vorlesung über Ethik. Berlin 1925, p. 245. Cited after: J. Pieper, Razumnost in pravičnost, p. 59. 33 T. Aquinas, STh II, II, 58,1. 34 Homer, Odyssey 14, 84. 35 Plato, Republic 331. 36 Aristotel, Rethoric 1, 9. 37 Cicero, De finibus 5, 23. 38 Ambrose, De officiis 1, 24. 39 Augustine, De Civ. Dei 19, 21. 40 J. Pieper, Razumnost in pravičnost, p. 75. 32
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Let us focus now on sport competitions or team sports. Every individual or team engaged in the sporting activity must accept many different rules and roles. These rules and roles put all engaged in a special situation where many things are expected from those engaged. They are in a position of a debtor to all the others engaged, to other competitors, to other team. For example, if you decide to play or accept an invitation to play some sport, you are expected to act according to various written and non-written rules and roles. To be a debtor does not mean just to play according to the rules but also to accept and fulfill unwritten rules – a role of a competitor in a con-test. If I do not try to achieve my maximum, I am not a contestant as I am expected to be. I do not enable others to test themselves by my performance.41 The essence of the competition is to put everyone engaged in a situation of testing. This requires of us fair and honorable play. From that it is clear that donated victory is not righteous. First of all it is not owed, but as we have seen, for justice it is essential to give to everyone what is his. Secondly, by donating victory we make impossible for others to test themselves, to recognize the truth of themselves - being a great epistemological feature of sport.42 Therefore the seriousness of the play is very important in sport. If the play is not serious in a sense of playing according to the rules and trying to do one‘s best, then the play (or competition) is not just.43 From this general definition of a justice in sport it is possible to make a step further. We can recognize different types of justice. Aquinas distinguished general justice (iustitia generalis), which orders the agent to the common good,44 from particular justice (iustitia particularis), which direct him to particular goods.45 Particular justice is further distinguished into three groups: commutative justice concerning part to part; distributive justice concerning the relation of the whole to part and legal justice concerning relation of part to the whole. In sport all three types of justice are clearly manifested. Let us take a look at these three groups of justice in regard to sport: a) commutative justice (part to part): It is most common type of justice in sport. All relations between athletes themselves and between teams belong to this group. It regards the relationship between the competitors. While every competitor is an individual person in this type of justice all moral problems and dilemmas of everyday life are faced. Because it is not possible that laws would be written fitting all possible relations between two persons, we do not talk just about legality but also about fair play. Fair play, so esteemed in sport, covers exactly relations between individuals, where laws are not sufficient. That could be the reason why it is sometimes so hard to decide if some acts were ‗fair play‘ or not since if they are just legal obligation, they do not belong to fair play. b) distributive justice (whole to part): Typical field of this type of justice is relation between sport institutions (IOC, sport federations, clubs, states…) and individuals – athletes or teams. In this type of justice ‗the whole‘ is in a position of a debtor and individual is in a position of a demander. Because of this, this kind of justice can be named a justice of a ruler. In sport, 41
In this point virtue of justice is directly connected with the virtue of prudence. For more about the epistemological role of sport see: J. Pisk: Epistemološka vrednost športnih tekmovanj (Epistemological value of sport competitions). In: Šport 1, 2006, p. 26-28. 43 ”And if he transfer it (chattel) simply so that the recipient incurs no debt, as in the case of gifts, it is an act, not of justice but of liberality. A voluntary transfer belongs to justice in so far as it includes the notion of debt, and this may occur in many ways…” (Aquinas, STh II, II, 61, 3). 44 E.g. Aquinas, STh II, II, 58, 6. 45 E.g. Aquinas, STh II, II, 58, 7. 42
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sport institutions set up different laws how to act. They include not only obligations for the athletes but also promised support from the institution. In general, every institution is founded with intention to help, to enable different sport activities. So, individual athletes can demand some support or protection from the institution (e.g. control over the competitions, financial support etc.). But it seems that this type of justice is often forgotten from the side of the sport institutions. The problem in this type of justice occurs while the one distributing justice (rulers) is at the same time the one obliged to look after justice. Because of that the unjust ruler (or authority) is the highest evil.46 Prudence and justice are therefore main virtues of every authority or ruler, also judge, referee or umpire. c) legal justice (part to whole): This type of justice is also very common in sport. It is justice between an individual (athlete) and sport institution (or referee). Athlete does not have just rights concerning sport institutions, but also many obligations. The athlete is now in the position of a debtor. E.g. sport institutions demand from the athletes or teams to play according to rules. If athlete does not play according to the rules he or she is unjust. Today this type of justice is common concerning problem of drug abuse in sport. There are strict rules given from the sport institutions prescribing what athletes are allowed to do and what they are not. If athlete wants to compete in Olympic Games, he or she must obey rules about use of drugs. If they disobey this regulations, they are unjust in regard to IOC and to the other competitors. Sport (especially sport competition) is not possible without obeying its rules. So obeying rules is sine qua non of any kind of sport. The rules represent the essence of one or another sport and regarding the rules we may classify any sporting activity as one concrete individual sport (e.g. football and not handball). As P. Weiss exposed, two kinds of rules are worth distinguishing in sport.47 But in the play there must be only minimal adherence to the rules, with stress on spontaneity and novelty. The rules are only the borders which make possible play itself. Because of such importance of justice in sport, of obeying rules and awareness of one‘s obligations to the others, sport is perfect place to practice everyday living. “As a result of their athletic activity the man will become more alert to the insistence and rights of others, both those with whom they play and those against whom they play.”48 To be able to obey rules and recognize rights of others it is firstly important to gain the mastery over self. That is why Plato stated that the one who act unjustly is to be pitied. 49 Now we are approaching next two cardinal virtues, which are not directed to the others but to the self.
Fortitude The third virtue is fortitude or courage. This virtue is mainly directed toward individual itself. It has to be emphasized that Plato estimated sport as a main mean for the development of this virtue50, because of this he included sport into his educational system. But, what did he find so 46
E.g. J. Pieper, Razumnost in pravičnost, p. 113. “One relates the actual beginning to the actual ending of a particular game; the other defines a set of norms which is to be ideally realized in every game. /…/ Had we only the first there would be no comparison of different games as better or worse; all those played in strict conformity to rules which relate their beginning to their ending would be equally good. Had we only second, there would be no necessary reference to any actual game.” (P. Weiss, p. 91.) 48 P. Weiss, p. 29. 49 Plato, Gorgias 469. 50 See: Plato, Laches 190c. 47
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special in sport? Plato rejected common opinion that gymnastics is useful only for the body. Gymnastics (or sport) is not only in service of the body but also in service of the second (emotional, courageous) part of the human soul. Without that sport would be without any value. As Plato said: “The very exercises and tolls which he undergoes are intended to stimulate the spirited element of his nature, and not to increase his strength; he will not, like common athletes, use exercise and regimen to develop his muscles.”51 Therefore athletes have only partial benefit from sport as far as they use it only as a mean for development of body. 52 That is why Plato so highly estimated sport. Let us scrutinize deeper into the essence of this virtue. If we look into the nature of sport, we can recognize the importance of going over different obstacles and enduring till the end. And that is exactly what is the essence of virtue of fortitude about: To be courageous and to endure till the end. It is obvious that this virtue is essential for any good sport. Without courage we can not imagine good performance in sport. But, as already Plato recognized, not only in sport. For any virtuous, moral good act courage is needed. Aquinas stated: “It belongs to the virtue of fortitude to remove any obstacle that withdraws the will from following the reason.”53 Without courage to go over obstacles it is not possible to act good. Without virtue of fortitude it is not possible to do what reason recognized as right or correct. There could not be the virtue of fortitude without virtue of prudence and virtue of justice, but realization of justice in particular situation requires virtue of fortitude (courage). But on the other hand fortitude without justice is the source of evil.54 Every sport competition includes the possibility of the defeat. And the possibility of the defeat demands a virtue of fortitude from athlete. To try hard, to fight till the end is the characteristic of fortitude in sport. At this point we must emphasize that for fortitude it is more important to endure than to attack. “The principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them.”55 This might seem unusual after everything that had been previously said about fortitude; since it could be argued that the main stress is on passivity. But this sentence shows a very serious situation in which to endure is only possible way of resistance. In situations like that fortitude proves its genuineness. It only seems that fortitude is passive in situations like that. We can compare this with swimming against the stream, where fight can demand utmost efforts.56 As in life also in sport is to be true: To endure more is the secret of any victory. It would be worth trying to distinguish big sports‘ names from mediocre athletes on the basis of the virtue of fortitude. Namely, the former do not give up, although if competition appears to be already lost. And it is not unusual that before the end of the game they score and win.
Temperance 51
Plato, Republic 410-412b. E.g. Plato, Republic 521e. 53 Aquinas, STh II, II 123, 3. 54 E.g. J. Pieper, Srčnost in zmernost, p. 25. 55 Aquinas, STh II, II, 123, 6. 56 “Endurance is more difficult than attacking, and this for three reasons. Firstly, endurance seems to mean that one stands fast against a stronger assailant, while one who attacks goes forward with superior strength; but it is more difficult to fight against a stronger than a weaker opponent. Secondly, endurance perceives danger already present, while for the one who attacks it is still in the future, but it is more difficult to be unmoved by the present than by the future. Thirdly, endurance implies duration in time, while one can attack with sudden impulse; but it is more difficult to remain unmoved for a long time than to fly at some difficult object with sudden movement.” (Aquinas, STh II, II, 123, 6 ad. 1) 52
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The last one is the virtue of temperance which is also directed toward individual itself. At a first glance it appears not suitable for modern times, not even for modern sport. But, if we take a closer look it can be seen that the athletes cannot succeed without renounce of many unnecessary things – it is obvious that temperance have an important role in sport57 as well as in any human conduct. Already Plato wrote about the role of temperance and asceticism in sport in his Laws.58 Ikos, the winner of pentathlon in 444 BC Olympics is known to be temperate - he never ‗touched woman‘ because of his desire to win. And similar stories are ascribed to other ancient athletes.59 Dion Hrisostom wrote about special virtues of athletes: “The most admirable thing of an athlete is not only to be superior concerning his competitor, but to be have control over fatigue, heat, gluttony and sexual desires. Namely, man who do not want to give up in front of competitor, must not give up to those things.”60 Temperance is manly directed toward pleasures: “Man naturally desires pleasures that are becoming to him. Since, however, man as such is a rational being, it follows that those pleasures are becoming to man which are in accordance with reason. From such pleasures temperance does not withdraw him, but from those which are contrary to reason. Wherefore it is clear that temperance is not contrary to the inclination of human nature, but is in accord with it. It is, however, contrary to the inclination of the animal nature that is not subject to reason.”61 The purpose of the temperance is the inside orderliness. Because temperance is directed toward individual itself it is not a realization of a good. But together with fortitude it is a necessary precondition for the realization of virtues of prudence and justice, also in sport. Any addiction is happening on the field of temperance including doping (use of banned substances) in sport. The use of doping is not temperate because it shows that for the success in sport it is not enough to act according to the rules. It also shows deficiency of the virtue of fortitude in sport contest. And, beside all, it is neither reasonable, nor in accordance with justice, because it concerns many others.
Conclusion In sport everything happens and has to be done very fast. The ability to make decisions very quickly is therefore often crucial to gain success. Because there is no time for think deeply about particular circumstance, the athlete usually decides in accordance with his habit. And that is why virtues are so important in sport as well as in ordinary life. They enable us to make good decisions in no time. Therefore, beside rules also virtues are needed for good, morally good sport. If rules direct athlete from outside, the virtues direct him from inside. And these virtues ‗from inside‘ are prerequisite which make possible to play regard to outside rules. Only virtues enable the play to become a ‗fair play‘. But, it is not just about the education in virtues for the athletes. Also sport itself is a mean of education in virtues. As Plato emphasized, sport helps in developing virtue of fortitude. But not only fortitude. Because it demands to renounce many things in favor of the final aim the virtue of temperance develops. And since it always takes place among the people and 57
―Athletes and soldiers have to deny themselves many pleasures, in order to fulfill their respective duties.” (Aquinas, STh II, II, 142, 1.) 58 E.g. Plato, Laws 839 e – 840 a. 59 E.g. W. E. Sweet, p. 115. 60 Dion Hrizostom, Speaches 28 (lived in 1. and 2. century AD) In: W. E. Sweet, p. 76. 61 Aquinas, STh II, II, 141,1, a. 1.
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according to the rules it develops virtue of justice. And finally because it includes these virtues it must include also prudence while as it was already shown there can be no virtue without virtue of prudence.
References 1. Aquinas, T. Summa Theologiae (Transl. Fathers of the English Dominican Province). Benziger Bros, 1947. 2. Aquinas, T. Izbrani filozofski spisi (Collected philosophical works). Ljubljana, 1999. 3. Copleston, F. Akvinski (Aquinas). Ljubljana, 1999. 4. Garcia, J. L. A. “Virtue ethics”. In: The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge 1996. 5. Jaeger, W. Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Vol.1: Arhaic Greece. The Mind of Athens. (second edition) (transl. G. Highet) Oxford University Press. Oxford, New York 1973. 6. Kreeft, P. “Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation: The Four Cardinal Virtues”. In: Back to Virtue. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986. 7. MacIntyre, A. Kratka zgodovina etike (Short History of Ethics). Ljubljana, 1993. 8. Maurer, A. A. Srednjeveška filozofija zahoda (Medieval Philosophy), Celje, 2001. 9. Pieper, J. Razumnost in pravičnost (Prudence and justice). Ljubljana, 2000. 10. Pieper, J. Srčnost in zmernost (Fortitude and temperance). Ljubljana, 2000. 11. Pieper, J. The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002. 12. Pisk, J., “Sport and Being as Being.‖ In: Philosophy of Sport and Other Essays, Ljubljana, 2003. 13. Pisk, J. Epistemološka vrednost športnih tekmovanj (Epistemological value of sport competitions). In: Šport 1. Ljubljana, 2006. 14. Pisk, J. „Mislim, torej sem‟ in vrednost športa danes (‗Cogito, ergo sum‘ and the value of contemporary sport). In: Šport. Ljubljana, 2007. 15. Plato. Collected works. (Transl. Benjamin Jowett). Internet editions. 16. Weiss, P. Sport, a philosophic inquiry. Illinos, 1969.
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SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ETHICS OF PROFESSIONAL SPORT Luca Gasbarro Università degli Studi di Teramo, Italy
Whoever is an athlete, and therefore plays a sport, is moved by a loisir spirit or rather by a ―mysterious‖, but always active, energy capable of supplying a certain level of wellbeing. For some, a mood and a physical condition, source of pleasure, of introspection and personal growth62; for others, a means of reaching concrete and quantifiable or even ―tradable‖63 objectives. These approaches, apparently contrasting, represent two sides of the same coin in professional sport, as they may form an equilibrium of living the sport while working, that, however, shows some weak spots where the second aspect prevails over the first one. In this case, the sport world negatively digests the idea of professionalism, by downgrading the ideal value of loisir activities (the game) when compared to the material value of working activities (work). From a conceptual point of view, this triggers an unbalance in the idea of ―athlete‖, with the predominance of the professional side over the human and athletic one, and also an organizational unbalance, in which the results of the sport performances become growingly decisive, as they are the object of an economic evaluation. The consequences of this instability are easy to notice. The fear of losing and therefore of not signing a new contract, the idea of the opponent as an ―enemy‖ because he is the ―competitor‖, the search for results - and therefore for the salary - at all costs, are only some of the signs of how, in the case of professional sport, the subject of the athletic-occupational practice has lost its real ―core‖, becoming an instrument for the attainment of other goals that do not permit the complete realization as an athlete and as a man. Let us take into account a widespread affirmation: I play a sport because this activity offers me the possibility to earn a livelihood. In this case, the sport becomes an activity to which a counter-performance corresponds. Namely, an activity carried out to reach athletic objectives through which one obtains a profit. The two extreme points – the fulfilment of a material good (result and profit) and the fulfilment of an immaterial one (the pleasure of playing a sport to complete oneself as a person) – come to an encounter, with the risk that the first aspect destroys the second one. The abovementioned examples show how this possibility is a practical reality64.
62
De Coubertin writes: sport ―is for every man a source of eventually perfecting the interior‖ (see P. DE COUBERTIN, 2003: Memorie olimpiche, Milan, Mondadori, p. 201. See also D. MIETH, 2006: ―Lo sport come mezzo di sviluppo umano‖ in Verso un‟etica dello sport nella cultura contemporanea, in PONTIFICIUM CONSILIUM PRO LAICIS, ed., Il mondo dello sport oggi. Campo d‟impegno cristiano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City, pp. 24-25; and C. MAZZA, ―Valori etici nello sport e olimpismo moderno‖, Proceedings of the 15th Meeting of the Italian National Olympic Academy, Giochi olimpici: parametri culturali e morali (Padoa, May 21-23, 2004), p. 37. 63 See D. MIETH, ―Problemi etici posti dalla commercializzazione dello sport‖, in Verso un‟etica dello sport nella cultura contemporanea, cit., pp. 35-41. See also F. RAVAGLIOLI, 1990: Filosofia dello Sport, Rome, Armando, pp. 130 ff. 64 See D. MIETH, ―Problemi etici posti dalla commercializzazione dello sport‖, in Verso un‟etica dello sport nella cultura contemporanea, cit., pp. 35-41.
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Therefore, the question to be asked does not deal with the possibility to take into consideration or not loisir activities, performed in exchange for an economic compensation, as sport. That would lead the discussion to sterile grounds and far from reality. Furthermore, it would produce the pre-emptive uselessness of our thoughts. If ever, in order to try and rebalance the relationship between game, sport and work, it is necessary to put forth new interpretative keys through which one could clarify how it is possible to practice a sport while working, so to prevent that the sport-occupational activity downgrades to negative forms which would deny the concept of sport-occupational activity as a game and that of the athlete as a human being. The first observation to consider is about the human nature65 of the athlete. A fact that can be noticed is the following: he is a form66 since the physical, mental and sensorial elements, of which the athlete himself is made up, are coordinated and inserted in a structural and functional context so that every element corresponds to everything and in turn everything to each element. The body is the core of sport. The care and the training of it offers improvement if conducted through a harmonious development and having limbs in complete coordination. Even if a particular sport asks for it, it is not possible to train a single part of the body without taking into account the total equilibrium of the athlete, consequently causing a negative performance and an unnatural physical and mental state. Athlete means moreover individuality67 – namely unique, not only from the physicalmaterial viewpoint, but also as a certain modality of comparing itself to the world. Selecting the elements necessary to live the athletic experience is the act the athlete performs in order to create a personal environment. In fact, he lives in harmony with the loisir dimension when he can choose which sport to play, what training instruments to use, what limits to reach in order to better his form. And the core of such a choice is the inner being. It is through his own personality68 that the athlete builds a personal, unique sphere allowing him to understand that he is not separate from the body, that he cannot be substituted, being himself, in all its uniqueness, a togetherness of body and spirit. Moreover, in order to play and enjoy himself, the athlete must meet 69 his adversary, the team mate, the coach, the supporter, the referee with whom he shares this experience involving70 not only both the individuals within the same sport performance, but also the athletic community as a whole, and – through the latter –social life as a whole. Therefore, the relationship with the other person in sport – as it happens in every inter-human relationship – implies human world, and also the primary relationship which is at the basis of everything else – that is, the relationship with God. Due to the rejoining of man with his source from the beginning, with his Creator who ―meets‖ and elevates him to his ―adoptive child‖, man is person – in this way also the athlete as a being, possesses an absolute dignity71.
65
On the idea of man according to a philosophical setting, see E. CORETH, 2000: Antropologia filosofica, Brescia, Morcelliana. 66 On the concept of man‘s form, see R. GUARDINI, 2002: Mondo e persona, Brescia, Morcelliana, pp. 135-136. 67 On the concept of individuality, Ibidem, pp. 136-140. 68 On the concept of personality, Ibidem, pp. 140-147. 69 ―Man, in fact, is by nature a social being, and without relationships with others he may not live nor explicate his talents‖: Second Vatican Council, Cost. past. Gaudium et spes § 12 70 See G. FRANCHI, 2007: ―Metafisica della relazione‖, in Appunti di etica sociale dello sport, Rome, Aracne, pp. 69-74. 71 ―All men, created in the likeness of their only God and equally endowed with rational souls, have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed from Christ‘s sacrifice, all of them are called to share the same divine beatitude, thus enjoying the same dignity‖: Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica, par. 1934.
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This is achieved through action. The athlete is, ‗par excellence‘, a human being that is active physically. But he is also active intellectually and spiritually through the fulfilment of acts that put human power to create into effect. This is a conscious, free and voluntary72 way of acting that is not limited to actions directed towards the creation of material and quantifiable things such as athletic performances, but that also becomes a concrete reality by confronting each other, communicating with team mates, listening to coaches, studying new techniques, pondering on what needs improvement, setting limits. Having such ways of acting confirms the idea that whoever plays a sport to find fulfilment, both as a good athlete and as a person, has to satisfy his own primary need as an athlete on the one hand – that is, participating and even prevailing in an athletic competition; on the other, he also has to satisfy a part of himself that cannot be described in real terms, so that even the final result of the performance would be negative. Therefore, in addition to the attainment of a result, the aim of sport activity must include the internal growth of the athlete, in terms of his personality73. Let us think of work: its aim is also formulated through the integration between the result achieved and the level of personal fulfilment of the individual who has accomplished it74. Carrying out work mechanically without the transfusion of a certain level of pleasure in what is being produced, implies the product as the aim of acting. Training oneself only to reach a result allows that result to become the center of the athletic performance. So, sport is characterized by a profit-result relationship that penalizes the human and loisir component. Otherwise, if the athlete is considered the center of sport and work activity, it is possible to find a balance between play and work. In such a sense, sport work no longer appears only as a material dimension where, without exaggerating, physical effort implies sweat and fatigue in order to produce results and therefore earnings – rather it is a dimension where the professional athlete enjoys himself, and even finds fulfilment. On the other hand, in all human actions we may distinguish what it means and what it produces. There are some activities in which what is produced represents their reason for existence – consumer goods. Instead there are activities whose reason for existence is to communicate a meaning to others and to ourselves75. An example of such activities is precisely sport. From a merely materialistic point of view, it is a product, the result of human work that is economically appreciable. Its value, however, goes beyond a mere economic quantification. The completeness of its evaluation has to include what it means, what it communicates to others and in particular to the subject that carries out the activity76. As we noticed above, playing a sport means trying to reach a result, and also having the chance to know oneself, to interiorize rules, to share experiences, to grow up and to mature. Besides, it means also having the chance to always keep in mind, while you act, that what you perform does not end in a simple sport gesture, but it carries on its work within the athlete and those close to him (in games as well, as a collective memory, sport history and so on). The professional athlete prefigures his sport endeavour, he prepares it in all its details through training and fulfils it through struggle: we could say that he creates his activity not 72
Second Vatican Council, Cost. past. Gaudium et spes § 17. See D. MIETH, ―Lo sport come mezzo di sviluppo umano‖, in Verso un‟etica dello sport nella cultura contemporanea, cit., pp. 24-25. 74 ―The term self-determination means that man, in as much as he is the subject of his actions, does not only qualify him as an agent (or as ―efficient cause‖), but that through this act he simultaneously discovers himself‖ (K. WOITILA, 2004: Metafisica della persona, Milan, Bompiani, p. 1440). 75 See ARISTOTLE, Etica nicomachea, Libro VI. 76 For a general characterization of the concept of work in relation with human figure in the Social Doctrine of the Church, we can consider the following social encyclicals: Mater et magistra § 10-234-235; Rerum Novarum § 34, Quadragesimo anno § 70; Populorum progressio § 27; Laborem exerces § 4-5-6-7-8-16 and Radiomessaggio di Pio XII § 5. 73
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only as a sport but also as a work. Through his own creativity the athlete concretizes the idea that he is the subject instead of the object of his own action77. If you play sport exclusively in order to have a remuneration, then sport activities lose importance and value, thus repressing the nature of the athlete, as described above, together with its loisir component. I will carry on playing until I can earn and therefore I will work until I find fulfilment as an “economic product”. In this statement, working activity is at the centre of everything. Priority is given to work and its market. Sport performance becomes the aim of sport. Athlete and game are in the background. The activity may go on or end as long as there is an economic return. It is not necessary that at the basis there is the ―desire‖ or the ―joy‖ to play a sport. The economic aspect remains the primary focus78. Considering this as exploitation is not reckless. On a theoretical level, a need linked to human subsistence is being commodified. On the contrary, if one plays a sport in order to fulfil their personal nature, that is to achieve their own vocation and talent, then the sport-work activity is a dimension that completes the subject in question. I will keep playing until I enjoy myself and therefore I will keep working until I fulfil my personal nature. In this second statement, the individual is at the centre of the activity: the individual finds his dimension and his reason for existence by integrating the loisir and professional component. Priority is given to personal fulfilment as an individual and as a professional athlete. The activity itself may be prolonged or come to an end if the main motivation, that is one‘s ―vocation‖ for sport, persists or runs out. Such a motivation means a taste for sport endeavours – training to reach a desired result in order to improve oneself. In this case, the focus of the professional athlete as an individual does not rule out the value of the fundamental categories of the economic system, but rather it contextualizes them within an anthropological view that prevents, both theoretically and pragmatically, from making the human being, and therefore the athlete, a mere element of the production and consumer system. Having said this, we do not want to assert that professional athletes cannot make sacrifices in order to reach an immediate better life condition and improve their assets; there are many examples, in fact, which prove how many athletes choose to leave their native countries and their families to start a new and more advantageous sport adventure. Instead, we want to highlight how the athlete, especially when he is a professional athlete, maintains his most characteristic feature – human dignity. This unavoidable element is at the basis of the idea according to which a person cannot accept to become an object of whatever need if not aimed at his satisfaction – personality. Also if you consider sport as a business relation, it is only the sport performance that has to be used, exchanged and compensated, not the athlete that carries it out. With an ulterior condition: sport performance must maintain its loisir preconditions and those of promoting the interior development for the athlete. In the long run, it will be very difficult to obtain important sport performances if they are not supported by a positive attitude towards sport. There are no great sport endeavours carried out by athletes who are unsatisfied of their condition. 77
In this case, the following idea is accepted: ―Work is for man and not man for work‖ and ―It is always man who is he purpose of the work, whatever work it is that is done by man‖. 78 D. MIETH, ―Problemi etici posti dalla commercializzazione dello sport‖, cit., p. 39.
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Therefore, sport work must not only come from the athlete, but it must be essentially ordered and oriented towards him. Apart from its objective quantifiable content, sport-work activity must be directed towards the subject carrying it out, because in general work‘s objective, whatever it may be, always remains the individual, his fulfilment and his growth79. Only when we play a sport in the most complete manner possible we find fulfilment as athletes80. Only if we work – always keeping in mind our own vocation, our own objectives – we find fulfilment as human beings. The achievement of the expected sporting aims and earnings must be supported by a reassessment of the vision of the athlete: from a social point of view – as an individual placed in a system of relations – and from a transcendent point of view – as a person. The loisir component in a sport-work performance is a fundamental element necessary to inspire brave choices towards an enhanced awareness of the athlete as a human being. Loisir spirit is the key to a constructive way of experiencing professional sport. Only if we have fun while we are working-playing can we be “productive”. It does not make sense to perceive any compensation if then we are not able to play having fun and, therefore, ―grow up‖ through sport. In this case, even under an economic point of view, we will not work positively and we will not be productive for ourselves or for our team: both the athletic and the work components, since they do not come to an end, will prevent us from being good athletes and good professionals – thus from being good people. The simple consideration that one plays badly due to an inner dissatisfaction, reminds the individual-athlete-professional as person the fundamental point of our thought. If we transfer this parameter to the organizational sphere of the world of sport, we pave the way to the legitimation of a payment to be given or a reward to be offered through the enhancement of that particular contribution that all the individuals involved in sport activities fulfil for their personal “growth” and for the development of sport as a whole. This way, it is possible to balance both the loisir component and the professional profile.
79 80
See Laborem exerces § 6. See H. L. RIED, 2002: The Philosophical Athlete, Durham (North Carolina), Carolina Academic Press.
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THE BODY AND TECHNOLOGY – A CONTRIBUTION TO THE BIOETHICAL DEBATE ON SPORT
Ivana Zagorac Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
The differences between the image of top athletes in history and those today could meet at the intersection between cyborg theory and sport studies. The reconceptualisation of athletes could at first be viewed as a shift from the ―natural‖ to the ―artificial‖. Throughout history top athletes have always been considered to be somehow unnatural, and have always been celebrated as heroes who have overcome the boundaries of their natural bodies. Today‘s sports events have been attracting more viewers than ever before, and tough competition has been raising the very standards of competition. High attendance sports are already freak shows; whether from the comfort of their homes or from the grandstands, it is difficult for sport supporters to imagine sculpting a super-muscular body with super-fast reflexes, disproportionately long arms and legs or an enormous lung capacity. Old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears are still present somewhere, although they are incorporated into the advanced achievements of the modern techno-culture. A number of the issues raised from this perspective have found room for discussion in the relatively new pluri-perspectival approach to the challenges of the biotechnological era – in bioethics. Bioethics offers a platform for a dialogue on the key questions of today‘s world, a dialogue that surpasses disciplinary, expert, historical and cultural positions. However, any such discourse is facing a pluralism of approaches and methodological barriers, and presupposes the existence of adequate theoretical grounds. This paper highlights only some of the problem points that plastically outline the insufficiencies of the existing mono-perspectively guided conceptions in the field of sport. Accordingly, the authoress emphasises only some of the symptoms that point to the disorientedness of everyday life, which is portrayed in sport in a rather peculiar way: the fragility of the ethical positions contained in the concepts of the ―spirit of sport‖ and fair play in facing the developments of science and technology, the objectification of the body, and an increase in the people‘s interest in high-risk activities. The authoress views these traits as signs of the need to transcend the until recently prevalent reductionistic and mono-perspectival approaches, which the distinctive bioethical approach can indeed do.* Today‘s world is dominated by the mass media – one can travel to all the corners of the planet both visually and physically, and globalisation from the political and economic has become a trendy movement. Such influences are also discernible in sport. Being the best in one‘s own village is now insufficient; one must also be the best in the global village. While the number of competitors is counted in thousands and tens of thousands, victory is determined by the tenth and hundredth part of a second. The developmental achievements of technology are the measure of the achievement of the human body. The attendant industry that has been growing around the competitors, supporters, audience and recreationists would have almost certainly been inconceivable at the grandstands of the most highly frequented ancient arenas, and the share of women in today‘s sport would have most definitely astounded all sport followers less than a century ago. *
This paper was developed within the framework of the Founding Integrative Bioethics project, headed by Prof. Ante Čović, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Zagreb.
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The ideas of pushing forward the barriers of both the body and mind, of transcending the limits of human abilities, and clear support for exceptional, above-average results come across as the bright spots of sport, which can also inspire social life in general. With sport we fight for health and against drugs, and we experience a fully private sense of progression, as well as an ecstatic collective feeling of pride. ―Some people talk about football as if it were life and death itself, but it is much more serious that that‖.81 Top athletes are public figures – examples, role models, prototypes. John Hoberman claims: ―Even in the age of space travel, the athlete is a more charismatic figure than the astronaut, although it is the latter who endures the more demanding training regimen and who makes history in a way no athlete can hope to emulate.‖82 Today‘s sport involves the cultural resources of society in entirely novel ways: sports events are followed by the media,83 troops of reporters write columns of Homeric grandeur, participation in sports competitions has become a political issue, museums of sport are being opened, and the ―sporty style‖ enjoys the status of a fashion substyle equivalent to the others. On the other hand, motivational sports slogans are met by unfavourable contexts dominated by control, supervision and restrictions, which are particularly evident in today‘s world of increased possibilities. Today‘s sport, as the consequence of our desire to shape our free time in a meaningful way, only seemingly bears the characteristics of a game, i.e. it only appears not to be laden with external functions and goals.84 The aspects of sport as game and an individual‘s freely chosen commitment to partake in a sports activity are the precondition for the relative autonomy of the field of sport in relation to the general level of community organisation. However, the aforesaid properties of sport render sports activities models that plastically mirror the general social relations, which cannot be found in the other domains of human activity. Naturally, sport is socially conditioned, and it is in this sense that it reflects the current mechanisms operative in society. Yet, at the same time sport also represents a specific field of privacy, integrity and autonomy. In this sense, the field of sport offers entirely distinct insight into the questions provoked by the latest possibilities of the biotechnological era. I shall attempt to single out some of the fields within the theories of sport that, each in its own way, appear to be indicative of ―the state of body and mind‖ today. (I) In competitive sports, the pluralism of ethical positions in the theoretical foundations of sport is reconciled by the concept of fair play, which has been shown to be fragile before the challenges of scientific and technological progress. (II) The solution offered in an attempt to harmonise the ―new‖ and the ―old‖ is a further step in objectifying the body – its technological enhancement with the purpose of improving its natural givens. Having been subordinately placed in the mind-body dualism, the body has advanced to now being a desirable means of creating a better and improved person. (III) The pace of the latest possibilities of improvement has been much faster than the pace of the 81
Mary Midgley, ―The Game Game‖, Philosophy, vol. 49 (1974), p. 231. The authoress starts her famous text precisely with this statement by Bill Shankly, manager of the Liverpool Football Club. 82 John Hoberman, Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport, p. 62. 83 50.3% of the citizens of the European Union follow sport on television, 17.4% on radio, and one third of all Internet searches pertain to sport and entertainment. Europeans‟ participation in cultural activities, http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_158_en.pdf. 84 Under the slogan citius, alius, fortius, the most highly respected sports competition in the world is still referred to as the Olympic Games. These meetings of top non-professional athletes have neither been meetings of amateur athletes, nor do its participants, viewers or organisers consider them to be mere organised sports games. The relationship between game and sport is a topic of many layers, which – although fascinating and philosophically stimulating – exceeds the framework of this paper.
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existing ethical apparatuses that study them. Contemporary man has been enjoying all the benefits that this historical moment has to offer, although aware that many of these introduce attributes that go undetected by the radar of ethical reflection. What hides beneath the surface of our rational doubts are deep-set fears of unknown risk.85 In this sense, I shall lastly examine the increasing popularity of so-called high-risk sports drawing on S. Lyng and his work on edgework.
Sport and values Camus noted that the context in which he really learned ethics was that of sport.86 The relationship between ethics and sport is far deeper than the level of relationship between morality and human activity, since the inherent characteristics of sport generate ethical questions. As physical activity deriving from social systems that promote the spirit of competition, sport is both a competition guided by rules and a system that ranks human bodies according to their respective performance. In respect of its conception, context and values, today‘s sport – besides its accentuated aspiration after success – differs enormously from sport as it once was.87 Focusing on the value attributes of today‘s sport, what we leave behind are illusions of their linear development. R. Simon analyses the relationship between values and sport on two levels.88 Externalism denies that sport is the source of specific values, and claims that what sport does is simply mirror the values present within the social context. Some externalists tone down the above attitude in some measure, claiming that sport primarily strengthens the values promoted in society and culture, and that it affects their acceptance in a specific way. Internalism, on the other hand, underlines the autonomy of sport as a social activity that functions according to its very own values, which can either be in accord or discord with the widely accepted social values. The conceptual opposition of these two standpoints has attracted the attention of many authors. Externalists identify sport as manifestations of both the dominant and suppressed characteristics issuing from the social context, most frequently basing their view on the 85
The simplest thing would be to call this fear anxiety, yet, the way I see it, the latter is characterised by a paralysed state of mind. Accordingly, I consider it more appropriate to examine this feeling from the perspective of standing in awe of the unknown, which most probably represents the most basic driving force behind human curiosity institutionalised in science or religion, for instance. 86 Jan Boxill, Sport Ethics: An Anthology, Blackwell Publishing, p. 15; Robert L. Simon, ―Internalism and Internal Values in Sport‖, in: William J. Morgan (ed.), Ethics in Sport, 2nd edition, p. 35. During his studies, Camus actively played sports and was most fond of football. He played as goalkeeper until he had to give up playing due to illness. Football fans claim that ―[a]ll that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football‖ (Kevin Moore, Museums and Popular Culture, Leicester University Press, London 1997, p. 125, from: www.museion.gu.se). 87 In the widest sense of the word, it can be said that sport is as old as man. Sports activities existed in all the eras and cultures as part of everyday life. The theory of the unity of mind and body implied that physical activity could psychologically and intellectually gratify. Furthermore, one could experience a sense of gratification precisely because physical activity lacks an external purpose. The strengthening of the concept of the mind-body dualism, the increasing influence of the Church and the development of industrial society are also turning points in both one‘s relation to the body and our understanding of sport. Value determinants have been changing according to the conceptual shifts. Our time is characterised by the institutionalisation of sports activities, as well as by a significant shift in our value system. As a result, a number of authors maintain that sport had not existed prior to the Industrial Revolution. For the purposes of this paper, I shall take the term sport to mean today‟s sport, fully respecting all the differences that distinguish it from the meanings ascribed to it throughout history. 88 Robert L. Simon, ―Internalism and Internal Values in Sport‖, in: William J. Morgan (ed.), Ethics in Sport, 2nd edition, p. 35.
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parallels between the social system and widely accepted sports activities, or analysing the processes of work and their mirroring in one‘s motivation for extra-work activities and their choice. The strained causality between production processes and sport facilitates a smooth (and often debatable) omitting of all historical, cultural, political, social and even productional differences. On the other hand, advocating the value – and not just value – autonomy of sport in relation to the social context is just as problematic. It is not difficult to understand where the questionability of the aforesaid two opposed positions comes from. The special status of sport is the consequence of its detachedness from real life, the uncommonness of some (or most) sport activities, their evident triviality, as well as a number of inconvenient moral standards according to which its participants function. Outside the world of sport a number of its rules, regulations and accepted moral actions would most certainly be met by significant resistance, if not even by widespread public condemnation. Yet, on sports fields, such morally disputable actions live an entirely legitimate life of their own. Externalists view this as a confirmation of their ―thesis on continuity‖ – i.e. the existence of both declared and suppressed mechanisms of the way society functions – while internalists use it to substantiate their ―separation thesis‖89 on the autonomy of moral values within the field of sport. The separation of moral actions in sport and their value disharmony with social actions has led to the thesis that sports ethics is founded on an internal, specific morality which is closely connected with the idea of athletic competition.90 Yet, how grounded is it to talk of values in actions whose nature is first and foremost competitive?
The victory imperative and the spirit of sport Competitive sport cannot function without competitions, and competitions are regulated by clear rules. It seems that we should not have any doubts in the ethical valorisation of the activities relating to sport: it is clear what is and what is not acceptable, when we play by the rules, and when we are subject to moral judgement. Victory is a motivational and not a moral guideline. Being the best means being the best within the prescribed rules. Moreover, the constitutive regulations91 of sport promote even some less efficient paths to victory: for example, skiers would be much faster down the slope if they did not have to meander between the flags. The concept of fair play is the central principle of moral judgment in sport. The internal logic of sport conceives of fair play as using only the allowed means of achieving victory. Fair play resolves our doubts about value and competition – if you do not play fair and by the rules you are not a participant equal to your competitors and your possible victory is considered to be invalid; moreover, you are not honoured but condemned. Fair play, as the ethical backbone of the competitive element in sport, is but one segment of what is widely referred to as the spirit of sport, proclaimed the unique platform for the shaping of a specific ―package‖ of values: ―ethics; fair play and honesty; health; excellence in performance; character and education; fun and joy; teamwork; dedication and commitment; respect for rules and laws; respect for oneself and other participants; courage; and community and solidarity.‖92 Thus, within the competitive environment of sport values do exist and their preservation is the very ethical signature of each and every success in sport worth admiring. 89
J. S. Russell, ―Broad Internalism and the Moral Foundations of Sport‖, in: ibid., p. 52. Robert L. Simon, ―Internalism and Internal Values in Sport‖, in: ibid., p. 36. 91 The constitutive and regulative rules of sport follow Kant‘s categorisation, which many authors interested in defining the internal mechanisms of sport draw on. Cf.: Sigmund Loland, Fair Play in Sport: A Moral Norm System. 92 Masami Sekine & Takayuki Hata, ―The Crisis of Modern Sport and the Dimension of Achievement for its Conquest‖, International Journal of Sport and Health Science, vol. 2 (2004), p. 180. 90
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Top achievement is victory if it is obtained in the spirit of sport. Only then is it truly honoured as »the celebration of the human spirit, body and mind«.93 The complex combination of the elements of the ―spirit of sport‖ also represents perhaps the final barrier to the challenges of the contemporary biotechnological era. The scientification of sport has happened regardless, and the limits will continue to be pushed in the future. Is this truly the end of sport and whatever happened to the preservation of the ―spirit of sport‖ – are questions that transcend the very field they have originated from.
The body, technology, sport The scientification of sport presents a serious challenge to the concept of the ―spirit of sport‖. The field of sport acts as a magnifier for our insight into the abstruse problems introduced by science and technology, particularly in respect of the questions of the body and the possibilities of manipulating it. Once the dwelling of the soul (at least transitorily), then the dark realm of lowly desires, today the body has been ―awakened‖, brought back to ―consciousness‖ and is now the object of our care and attention – it is a material befitting all improvements. Cosmetic surgery has been steadily gaining in popularity and represents an efficient way of improving one‘s natural givens. It has democratised beauty. Baudrillard observes that in America the cult of the body is an ―achieved utopia‖ and that physical beauty is today created by plastic surgeons.94 Today we can all choose a desired body at ―the selfservice store of styles‖ (T. Polemus). However, the increasingly greater possibilities of manipulating the body render our sense of insecurity concerning the body, what it actually is, what is natural on it and what can become of it – increasingly deeper. The Cartesian dream of the human body as a machine has never been more achievable than today. Control over one‘s own body creates ample room for significant manipulation in the development of one‘s (bodily) identity. Wasteful consumerism also uses the body as a material for the moulding of the desired self-image, transforming it into a performance tool. The traditional ―subduing of the body‖, indicated – first and foremost – through the Christian tradition, has erupted into its very opposite. Bodiliness has become a project, a form of physical goods and a stock we market. The boundaries between the natural and social are blurred; the questions of biological processes, of giving birth and dying are questions of social debates and political decisions. The growing insecurity concerning the naturalness of the body, induced by the possibilities of almost limitlessly reshaping it – even from the time and state of pre-bodiliness – places both the body and bodiliness into an entire novel context. If we interpret the body within the context of nature and if we understand it to be the selfsprouted result of genetic lottery, then the fears of the possibilities of technological interventions into the very foundations of naturalness are justified. Yet, the body is not only natural but also – naturally – cultivated in a way and already removed from nature. Although the technologisation of both nature and the human body can be derived from the cultivation of the same in an almost undetected way, this would, nevertheless, be a leap that could mean a change of the underlying cornerstones of humanitas. Culture has been adopting nature while re-defining it via social constructions and classifications. Technology has been adopting nature via alienation and has been re-constructing it as an object. The latter also implies creating, programming and improving the human body – its complete objectification. One of
93
Ibid. Cf.: ―Clean sport is the celebration of the human spirit, body, and mind. It is what we call the ‗Spirit of Sport‘ and it is characterized by health, fair play, honesty, respect for self and others, courage, and dedication.‖ WADA NewsItem, http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/files/43036/11297341155WADANewsItem.doc/WADANewsItem.doc 94 J. Baudrillard, America, Verso 1989.
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the possible future projections of the grand finale of this scenario sees the humankind as a self-created and consciously evolved new species. The technological means of modifying our biological inheritance, coupled with the social conditions that facilitate such transformations, has resulted in a wide array of techniques of potentiating the desires attributes. Enhancement technologies target at improving both the mental and the physical characteristics beyond the frames of what we would consider sufficient for a ―normal‖ life. Countless techniques of enhancing the body and mind are already accessible. What attracts attention is the question of the fine line between accepted and forbidden techniques. In the field of sport this line is traced by the concept of the spirit of sport and the theoretical platform of fair play. For many, this is the final line of defence of humanism against biotechnological infection, the outcomes of its possible re-constitutions of which are uncertain. Others consider it to be susceptible to change and adaptation. If we act morally when we act by the rules, then we change the rules so as to remain moral.95 The basic instrument that achieves the goals of competitive sport is the athlete him/herself. Their bodies are the key factor in setting up the path to victory. Intensive trainings at a very young age, practising moves up to the point of body robotisation, subjection to pain, risking injuries – the body is instrumentalised, denied, alienated and transformed into a product.96 Within the competitive environment of sport, its participants are being classified, excluded, eliminated and selected on the basis of their achievements. They enter into a peculiar lovehate relationship with their own bodies; their bodies are goods, both a means and an end, they make demands and seek sacrifices, and can experience pain and pleasure simultaneously. ―Pleasure asceticism‖ offers the values of elitism, abstinence, discipline and deprivation, which are the very connective tissue of our society. Winning against the competition, winning against the adversary, overcoming oneself and one‘s limits, winning against the weather conditions, winning for one‘s country… In the name of victory, in the name of the nation, in the name of exceeding the limits, in the name of exiting the anonymity of the world of work…, competitive sport is a place that tests the limits of human abilities, as well as the balance between body and mind, and that pushes the limits, a place that exposes facts about the human nature and the possibilities of man. Nevertheless, it has been long since the time when ordinary people could identify with top athletes and turn their sports achievements into motivation for their own activities. Pushing the limits, the imperative of setting a record and the competition that has expanded from one‘s own village to the population of the global village as a whole oppose all forms of mediocrity. We do not have to look far to find examples of top athletes who owe their achievements, at least in some measure, to some error of nature, the game of genes and a winning end result of the ―genetic lottery‖. John Hoberman starts his book with a discussion of the domination of black athletes in general,97 who are, according to many, at a biological advantage, which manifests itself primarily through the biological traits of their bones and muscles, insignificant from the perspective of biology yet consequential, it seems, from the perspective of top sport. I do not wish to even slightly
95
Andy Miah suggests that the competent sports authorities accept the fact of the development of technology and its entering the field of sport, and announce that we have entered a transitional stage. This stage implies having to re-examine the existing laws on doping and their harmonisation with the applications of technology outside sport. Andy Miah, Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics, Gene Doping and Sport, Routledge 2004. 96 Michel Caillat, ―Fair play and the competitive spirit – fading sport ideals – The Competitive World of Sport‖, UNESCO Courier, Dec. 1992, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1992_Dec/ai_13522626/pg_3. 97 John Hoberman, Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport, pp. 33-35.
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diminish the importance of training, practice and significant self-sacrifice98 preceding the achievement of results, yet the fact that some individuals have the ability to achieve more due to the gene game, nevertheless, remains a fact. Technology presents us and our offspring with the possibility of being amongst such athletes. It does not set the ultimate course of development, but simply widens our range of choices. People remain moral agents, and their decisions are followed by consequences that continue to require responsibility. N. Bostrom and R. Roache99 distinguish between bioconservatives and transhumanists, providing a fascinating pro-transhumanistic overview of the distinction between therapy and enhancement, and the typical areas that frequently house opposing standpoints. Their conclusion is that there are no valid reasons for either resisting or rejecting the application of all technological breakthroughs that can enhance people (their bodies, minds and general abilities). Transgressing the limit after which we endanger others is the only restriction on our free choice. Accordingly, there are no any obstacles to the interventions into genetic structures with the purpose of selecting the best children, provided that the highest principle must always be the best interest and future welfare of the resulting children.100 Leaving aside the possible controversies provoked by such attitudes, I shall centre on the proclaimed autonomy of decision-making concerning the application of the existing and prospective human enhancement technologies. Indeed, it can be said that what we wish to have is just a slightly enhanced bone or muscle structure, that there are people whom nature endowed such structure and that such traits are not harmful for our health. Our autonomy is measured by the freedom of the choices we make and exercise, and the above choice is unlikely to have negative consequences for the rest of society. So why would we be sceptical about the possibility of exercising choices of this type? Torbjörn Tännsjö101 wonders why we honour top athletes by celebrating the successes they have achieved not all by themselves, since such successes are also the result of plain luck and a good mix of genes. Should we not have more respect for those who have consciously undergone certain treatments in order to become more successful, and who, correspondingly, truly deserve to have their successes considered the outcome of their efforts? Why would we not admire the physical constitution that someone has chosen and that helped someone achieve something with it? Tännsjö further explains that, by doing so, we can, naturally, also admire the scientists whose work has facilitated such changes. His stance is the extreme variant of the transhumanistic position. The radicalness of his proposal does not require firmer grounds than the ones implied, although it does attract the attention of scientists, athletes and the general public. Discussing these questions within the field of sport, which attracts the interest of the masses, provides an example of resolving such and similar questions in the other fields of human ―... Genetic dependence does not exclude environmental influences. A highly heritable phenotype does not mean that it is predetermined, but training can exert its profound effect only within the fixed limits of heredity. Though genes and training may set the physiologic limit, it is behavioral and other factors that determine the ultimate frontiers of human performance.‖ Klissouras Vassilis, ―The nature and nurture of human performance‖, European Journal of Sport Science 2, vol. 1 (June 2001), pp. 1-10. 99 Nick Bostrom & Rebecca Roache, ―Ethical Issues in Human Enhancement‖, http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/human-enhancement.pdf. 100 Ibid., pp. 24-25. 101 Torbjörn Tännsjö, “Genetic engineering and elitism in sport”, in: Claudio Marcello Tamburrini & Torbjörn Tännsjö (eds.), Genetic Technology and Sport: Ethical Questions, Routledge 2005, pp. 57-68. 98
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activity. On the other hand, the relative autonomy of the field of sport disallows the exact transferral of its values to the much wider social context. On the one hand, the issues of body treatment transcend the field of sport, in which they can be examined in a potentiated social variant, while on the other, the way that the ethics of sport relates to the social context is much looser. With respect to the aforesaid, all the adjustments of the judgment criteria in sport are the result of consensus within the field itself. Nevertheless, the ethical assessments of the ways in which bodies are treated in sport cannot not have impact on the wider context, since – ultimately – we all have bodies regardless of how we feel about sport. Naturally, there are many such examples, and bioethical discussions abound with the same. One such example is in vitro fertilisation. Although it is a legally accepted medical practice, we can all speak out against the creation of children via artificial insemination, and can claim that we would never resort to such procedures. We could be just as judgemental about the pushing of limits in sport and the entirely legal entrance of the genetically modified into the world of sport competitions. The widely discussed field of the dividing line between medical therapy and human enhancement aims at creating the possibilities of choice and an equal treatment within all the fields of human activity. Yet, if – for a brief moment – we forget about the procedures and focus on their products, why do we still have problems with equating the above two procedures in the ethical sense? The difference between the two does not lie in the means but in the end. Genetic interventions with the purpose of creating enhanced athletes render them a special group which is entered programmatically. This also puts an end to our last selfdelusion that effort, hard work and practice lead to the very top. Getting motivated by the successes of others in sport to set and achieve our goals – regardless of whether these goals fall within or without the field of sport – also becomes a mission impossible, since such high achievers have been designed at meetings between bioengineers, medical professionals and intermediary companies on the one hand, and future parents on the other. It is highly possible that we would not be able to ask questions of this type without the theoretical grounds prepared in advance on the legacy of the Baconian and Cartesian traditions. The questions of the influence of technology on enhancing one‘s abilities and thus achievements are particularly plastic in the fields that reflect the concept of the mind-body dualism more than others. The detachedness of the human body from human existence lies at the very core of modern science. Nature is defined, researched and finally controlled; the objectification of nature is also the objectification of the body. There has been a shift in positions in respect of the very concept of person – from the position of personalism to positions which are contextually defined by empiricism or functionalism.102 The dehumanising nature of technological ―humanisation‖ cannot simply be calculated into a costbenefit analysis. Plessner‘s distinction between ―being a body‖ and ―having a body‖ has today been gaining in currency: the fine line between the nature that we are and the qualifications that we attribute to ourselves has been dissolving. Brown states that ―it is worth noting that there are few other experiences in life outside of sports where the distinction between being a person and having bodies seems so fatuous.‖103 This might just be an entirely sufficient reason for the defence of the human body against its ultimate objectification.
The illusion of control 102
Cf.: Laura Palazzani, ―The Concept of Person between Bioethics and Biolaw‖, in: Ante Čović & Thomas Sören Hoffmann (eds.), Bioethik und kulturelle Pluralität. Die sudosteuropäische Perspektive, Academia Verlag, Sankt Augustin 2005, pp. 113-123. 103 Masami Sekine, Takayuki Hata, ―The Crisis of Modern Sport and the Dimension of Achievement for its Conquest‖, International Journal of Sport and Health Science, vol. 2 (2004), p. 185.
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The rationalistic cost-benefit equation bearing the signature of transhumanism fails to embrace the element of uncertainty as to the consequences of interventions into the very fundaments of a person. The field of sport figures as a fascinating magnifying glass, which unveils entirely specific and intuitive ways of manipulating our fears of an altered future. High-risk sports activities are all too frequently advertised as activities that will ―truly make you feel alive‖. Such activities have been flourishing simultaneously with society‘s attempts to reduce the risks involved in everyday life. Today‘s cars are much safer, preventive medicine is far more efficient (we can be treated even before we become ill), bank systems are increasingly advanced, and health and safety at work are now a legal obligation. On the other hand, in the sphere of our privacy, we are witnesses to a massive increase in the popularity of activities such as parachuting, scuba diving, paragliding, rock climbing, etc. The inconsistency between the public efforts to reduce the risks of injury and death, and the private desire to increase these risks is most certainly worth our attention. Stephen Lyng has been tackling so-called ―edgework‖ (he borrowed the neologism from Hunter S. Thompson), defining it as those activities that involve a clearly perceptible threat to the physical and mental integrity of individuals. The ―edge‖ is the dividing line between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, common sense and insanity, awareness of order in both man and his/her environment and awareness of disorder.104 The common trait of all ―edgework‖ is that its participants test and improve their skill at maintaining control in situations that border on absolute chaos, i.e. in situations that most people would judge to be insurmountable. According to Lyng, the particular appeal of such activities issues from having control over situations that are an unpredictable combination of skill and coincidence, and the illusion of control (Lang, 1975) is the underlying impulse to take action on the edge. Although the levels of safety in dealing with our everyday lives have been steadily growing, some new dangers have emerged: threats of global destruction, threats from biotechnological weapons, the possibility that entire national economic systems might fail, falling into a new economic crisis, etc. This list could easily be expanded with a general feeling of lack of privacy, a deep-rooted feeling of the supremacy of the system over the individual and the annihilation of individuality. Thus, the increase in the security measures of society influences the strengthening of one‘s instincts for survival in society in a seemingly contradictory way. And considering that the risks we are exposed to lie outside our power of choice, the sole thing we can do is create the illusion of control by creating our very own ―microcosm of risks‖. Langer claims that people are prone to view themselves as causes, even in situations they have no control or influence over. What is present in sport in particular is a combination of coincidence and skill, which is vital for its outcome, meaning that sport also teems with mechanisms of creating the illusion of control. We produce risks while working out a compensation plan. Having inherited the legitimacy of the master of progress, science is equally called upon to talk of application risks. The demystification of scientific rationality has unveiled the looseness of the ties between the production of scientific achievements and the responsibility associated with their application. Risk, thus, transcends the framework of scientific experiments in strictly controlled environments, and has been gaining in general interest. Disturbing events, such as wars and natural disasters, were just as terrifying for pre-industrial humankind as they are today. However, the impact of once localised human activities is today global; while natural disasters were once regarded as either the game of fate or the wrath of God, today the ability 104
H. S. Thompson, who coined ―edgework‖, gives an interesting commentary in his explanation of the word, stating that this dividing line can also be arrived at in other ways, such as when a workaholic reaches the very edge of reason (S. Lyng, pp. 95-96).
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to manipulate natural processes is attributed to the humankind itself. The biotechnological era has been distributing its latest achievements to society unequally, although their consequences are measured globally. ―Poverty reflects hierarchy, and smog democracy‖ (Beck, 1992). Although scientists may never succeed in answering the questions about the very beginning of life, about that very first impulse that stimulates cell division and the building of DNA molecules, they, nevertheless, already possess ample technological tools to play the game of Creation. Social forms have adjusted their corrective factors in order to – at least seemingly – harmoniously participate in risk calculation. But the question of the future is ungraspable for the utilitarian calculation. The underlying premise of science today suffers from an existential fever – justified doubt needs no solid proof. Doubt, of course, does not imply necessity. After the narcissistic wrongs done by Darwin and Copernicus who destroyed our anthropocentric and geocentric worldviews, as stated by Habermas, perhaps we could also get used to a new decentralisation: the subjection of life and the body to biotechnology.105 One such step would be adjusting the boundaries between the accepted and unaccepted in order that our latest activities may remain morally unquestionable. The vast array of biotechnological possibilities poses not only difficult moral questions, but also questions of a different kind. Contemporary science cannot provide a satisfactory answer to the question of the conflict between partial and global problems.106 The latest possibilities demand discussion of the accurate understanding of life form as such, and philosophers have no more excuses for leaving these controversial questions in the hands of bioscientists and engineers alone. One possible framework for a dialogue that surpasses all disciplinary, expert, historical and cultural positions is to be found in bioethics.
105 106
J. Habermas, Budućnost ljudske prirode (The Future of Human Nature), Naklada Breza, Zagreb 2006. I. Cifrić, Bioetička ekumena: odgovornost za život susvijeta, Pergamena, Zagreb 2007.
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THE PREVENTIVE APPLICATION OF GENE TECHNOLOGY IN SPORTS – ETHICAL ASPECTS or What about the good side of frankenstein‟s monster?107 Arno Müller Maastricht University, The Netherlands
1. Introduction While technological progress seems to make possible the application of medical know-how – which (at least in the past) we thought to be mere fiction or an elusive utopia – a number of ethicists, especially in the body-related sciences like medical sciences and sport sciences, are becoming on the one hand increasingly concerned about the (promised) positive results of this technology. But on the other hand the concerns expressed do often appear as unjustified generalizations about biotechnology108 as a whole and gene technology in particular. In this paper I would like to suggest that at least two aspects should be taken into consideration: a) that besides enhancement and selection – which is often referred to as creating Frankenstein‟s Monster – there is the apparently ‗good‘ side of this technology, i.e. the preventive and therapeutic use of gene technology.109 And b) the highly valuable theoretical and abstract approaches should be supplemented by empirical investigations. It seems that these two aspects are more or less overlooked in the current discussion and especially in criticisms about the use of biotechnology in the field of sports – whether it be from the somewhat conservative110 perspective or the language-analytical111 view. In any case, if we regard the preventive and therapeutic use of genetic technology as in some way good, we should be aware that we will in all probability face ethical conflicts ahead. A short reflection on perspectives of genetic testing in the field of sports concludes this paper. 2.
From Frankenstein to Frankenrunner
107
This paper was presented at the annual conference of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS), 19th-22nd September 2007 in Ljubljana (SLO). It is part of a two-year research project on Sports and Genomics conducted in the context of the Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI) of the Maastricht University and the Centre for Society and Genomics (CSG). For more information on the project see: Rein Vos, Guido de Wert, and Arno Müller, Sport, genetics and prevention [cited 01.06.2007]; available from http://www.society-genomics.nl/?page=527. 108 Cf. Ivo van Hilvoorde, “Sport and Biotechnology,” in Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport, ed. D. Levinson and K. Christensen (Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2005), p. 199-203. 109 Julian Savulescu, “Compulsory genetic testing for APOE Epsilon 4 and boxing,” in The genetic technology and sport : ethical questions, ed. Claudio Tamburrini (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 136146. 110 Cf. Mike McNamee, “Ethical issues regarding human enhancement technologies: Therapy, Enhancement and the traditional goals of medicine in sport” (paper presented at the BPSA 4th Annual Conference, Leeds, UK, 24.03.2007). 111 Cf. Emily Ryall, “Defining the Human (II): Separating mind & body, and avoiding category mistakes” (paper presented at the BPSA 4th Annual Conference, Leeds, UK, 23.03.2007).
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―It's a crying shame when a once proud athlete hits the bottle. It can be even more of a shame – and frightening too – if that bottle contains a genetic cocktail that might forever change the competitive balance in sports. And in this Frankenstein world [italics AM] where genetics meets athletics, the future is now.‖112 This is a quote from the UK online journal Peak Performance, which describes itself as being ―the world's No.1 source of advice for athletes, coaches and sports science students.‖ 113 It seems that it is the rather popular literature and online information that are the major sources for forming public opinion in this field (as in many others as well) and it fits into the golden rule of journalism that only ‗bad news is good news‘. If we agree on these assumptions a certain bias is created and the more or less positive aspects of genetic testing are overlooked. But it is not only popular texts that focus on the Frankstein-world-association of biotechnology with sports. Maybe the most prominent example is the ―Frankenrunner‖114 which is on the cover of Andy Miah‘s book Genetically Modified Athlete.115 Miah‘s controversial approach in favour of genetic application for modification fails to consider the preventive use of genetic testing, i.e. to identify inherited diseases. Genetic testing or even genetic screening programs for athletes, to gain insight into the health predisposition, might be a helpful instrument to prevent incidents of sudden death which otherwise might have occurred on the sports field.
112
Jon Entine, Genetic engineering and sport: has the future already arrived? [cited 01.07.2007]; available from http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0658.htm. 113 Ibid. 114 Andy Miah, Catching up with Frankenrunner – The World Anti-Doping Agency's concerns about GM athletes raise new questions about the drugs regime in sports. [cited 15.07.2007]; available from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000006D86E.htm. 115 Andy Miah, “Genetically modified athletes : biomedical ethics, gene doping and sport,” (2004).
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Figure 1116 3. Prevention and Sports – Why should we screen athletes? Firstly, what do we mean by screening? It is an examining or testing of a population or a subpopulation not displaying any symptoms, i.e. tests that are given to people apparently free of a disease. A sports-related example is pre-participation screening like in Italy. This is a screening – consisting of a physical examination, a 12-lead ECG, questions about family history – of a population including all persons in Italy aged 12-35 who engage in sports (performance as well as leisure-time sports).117 But why should there be such screenings? Pheidippides (490 BC) According to a legend Pheidippides, who was a Greek soldier and conditioned runner, ran from Marathon to Athens to announce military victory over Persia. He delivered his message, then collapsed and died. – [now we make a little leap forward in time …] Flo Hyman (1986) Flo Hyman was captain of the 1984 US Women‘s Olympic volleyball team that won silver. She died aged 30 of a congenital heart disorder (Marfan‘s syndrome) while playing a Japanese league game. Daniel Yorath (1992) A 15-year-old football player who had just been signed by the UK team Leeds United, Daniel Yorath died from hypertropic cardiomyopathy while playing football with his father in the garden. Reggie Lewis (1993) Boston Celtic‘s star and sixth captain Reggie Lewis was 27 years old when he died while shooting baskets at an off-season practice. Sergei Grinkov (1995) Olympic gold medal skater Sergei Grinkov collapsed and died from a heart attack at the age of 28 while training at an ice rink in Lake Placid, NY, USA. An autopsy showed that he had the arteries of a 70-year-old man, though had never mentioned suffering chest pains. Miklós Fehér (2003) The football player died (during a match) of an arrhythmia brought on by hypertropic 118 cardiomyopathy. Antonio Puerta (2007) The football player died three days after collapsing during a match because of a hereditary heart disease, i.e. arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).119 Further cases of football players could also be mentioned here.120 So the idea of screening athletes is to prevent sudden death ―on the pitch‖.
116
Ibid.[cited 01.07.2007]; available from http://www.gmathletes.net/. Cf. Domenico Corrado and Gaetano Thiene, “Protagonist: Routine screening of all athletes prior to participation in competitive sports should be mandatory to prevent sudden cardiac death,” Heart rhythm : the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society 4, no. 4 (2007). 118 For most of the examples cf. Domenico Corrado, Cristina Basso, and Gaetano Thiene, “Essay: Sudden death in young athletes,” The Lancet 366, no. Supplement 1 (2005): p. 47–48. 119 Santiago F. Fuertes, “Muere Antonio Puerta,” El Pais, 28.08.2007. 117
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Besides the cardiological application there is a second sport-related possibility to identify predispositions for congenital diseases, i.e. in a neurological genetic screening. There is now quite a lot of evidence about the potential risks of brain damage when engaging in contact sports like boxing or even soccer. There are indications that genetic predisposition plays an important role in the prevalence of Parkinson‘s disease, Alzheimer‘s disease and ‗dementia pugilistica‘. In particular it is apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) which is associated with chronic traumatic brain injury in boxing.121 Although data of interviews with neurologists is available, the following paragraph concerns information given by cardiologists and mainly the cardiological form of pre-participation screening. This helps to focus on the issues within the cardiological cases. Neurological screenings might raise different ethical concerns and are therefore not discussed explicitly. 4. Empirical Ethics – What do physicians say? The current practice after a deviant test result from a pre-participation screening in some countries (e.g. Italy, France) is to ban athletes testing positive 122 from competitive sports. So the prevention strategy of cardiologists who find an athlete with an abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) during a 12-lead ECG routine screening (which is basically a nongenetic screening, except for looking at family history) is to ban the athletes from playing sports anymore. At the same time cardiologists report that these positively screened athletes are trying to get around the strict regulation by seeking out other physicians until they find one who issues them with clearance so that they can practise their sport again. In our research project we were wondering how physicians who work in the field of sport deal with the tension between athletes' autonomy on the one hand and their own professional responsibility or even paternalism on the other side, i.e. tensions surrounding mandatory screenings, the banning of athletes from competitive sports and athletes who escape these measures, and so on. And we wanted to see for example what sports cardiologists think about genetic testing. Might it be a helpful tool for them? Where do they see the ethical issues?123 It was Domenico Corrado, a sports cardiologist from Italy, who pointed out the potential medical value of genetic testing: ―The diagnosis of diseases of the heart muscle can be difficult in athletes because of the physiological (and reversible) structural and electrical adaptations that take place in the heart as a result of long-term training. These adaptations result in an increase in left-ventricular cavity dimension and wall thickness; signs that also suggest cardiomyopathy. A correct diagnosis is crucial to avoid either sudden death or unnecessary disqualification from sport. Genetic tests to allow for differential diagnosis 120
See also: Christopher Wurmdobler, “Tod im Spiel – Immer wieder sterben junge Fußballer an plötzlichem Herzversagen. Meist führen erbliche Defekte zum Kollaps.,” DIE ZEIT, 06.09.2007. 121 B. D. Jordan et al., “Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 associated with chronic traumatic brain injury in boxing,” JAMA 278, no. 2 (1997): p. 136-140. See also: M. Loosemore, C. H. Knowles, and G. P. Whyte, “Amateur boxing and risk of chronic traumatic brain injury: systematic review of observational studies,” BMJ 335, no. 7624 (2007). Also Paul McCrory, “Boxing and the risk of chronic brain injury,” BMJ 335, no. 7624 (2007). 122 To be “tested positively” should not be misunderstood as a positive doping test result. I refer here to the detection of a disease . 123 In this paper I focus on pro and con aspects of genetic testing. The other questions will need be addressed in further publications.
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are eagerly awaited. In the meantime, electrocardiograms can either suggest or identify the presence of up to 60% of the potentially lethal conditions associated with sudden death in athletes.‖124 But during interviews with European-level sports cardiologists which were conducted in the first phase of the research project a variety of opposing views on genetic testing were expressed: e.g. It would be unlawful, that‘s why genetic testing in form of a screening cannot be implemented (in our country). genetic testing is too expensive at present… but perhaps in the future it will actually help to reduce costs. in borderline cases it is reasonable to have genetic testing. we prefer to stick to the IOC and FIFA guidelines.125 If we look at these statements only with a superficial glance we do not really see how they reflect on all the ethical issues of genetic screening. But this qualitative data marks the starting point for a further analysis which will reveal deeper insights and probably help to formulate recommendations on how to deal with issues on genetic testing in a sporting context. I.e. the analysis of the data contributes to further policymaking on these issues, either to promote or to prohibit genetic screening, or to further differentiate the conditions for application. While on the one hand some of the sports cardiologists interviewed opposed genetic screening programmes, on the other hand all of them supported the standard (mainly) cardiological pre-participation screening for athletes as described in the consensus statement published in 2005.126 Interestingly enough not all national cardiological organizations support this consensus statement. At least two questions can be derived from these initial findings a) what are the differences between the standard (cardiological) pre-participation screening on the one hand and a genetic screening on the other?127 And b) why do national cardiological organizations oppose the standard pre-participation screening?
5. Further Ethical Aspects The deeper ethical analysis of the ongoing research project will be carried out as soon as all the relevant empirical data is collected and fully coded. Thus here I will just sketch the levels 124
Corrado, Basso, and Thiene, “Essay: Sudden death in young athletes,” p. 48. Focus group interview with sports cardiologists, 03.09.2007. “Any genetic test that attempts to gauge a particular capacity to practice a sport constitutes a medical evaluation to be performed solely under the responsibility of a specially trained physician.” That is, for example, what the Olympic st Movement Medical Code (which has been in force since 1 January 2006) has to say on genetic testing. IOC, Olympic Movement Medical Code [cited 10.08.2007]; available from http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1022.pdf. Also IOC_Medical_Commission, Sudden Cardiovascular Death in Sport. LAUSANNE RECOMMENDATIONS. [cited 10.08.2007]; available from http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_886.pdf. 126 A. Pelliccia et al., “Recommendations for competitive sports participation in athletes with cardiovascular disease: a consensus document from the Study Group of Sports Cardiology of the Working Group of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Physiology and the Working Group of Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology,” Eur Heart J 26, no. 14 (2005). 127 This is the question about genetic exceptionalism. See for example: Eryl McNally (Chair) and Anne Cambon-Thomsen (Rapporteur), “25 recommendations on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic testing,” (2004). And T. Murray, “Genetic exceptonalism and future diaries: is genetic information different from other medical information?,” in Genetic secrets : protecting privacy and confidentiality in the genetic era, ed. Mark A. Rothstein (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). 125
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for further ethical examination. The relevant moral theoretical aspects can be addressed on three different levels. First of all the general principles of biomedical ethics128 need to be considered in each decision on issues of genetic testing/screening, i.e. autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. On a second level ethical considerations can be focused on the screening aspects, as for example Darren Shickle and Ruth Chadwick pointed out in their paper on the ethics of screening: Is „screeningitis‟ an incurable disease? 129 Besides the sensitivity and specificity of screening tests the problems of false-positive as well as falsenegative cases need to be reflected for example.130 Also the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine of the Council of Europe131 is of importance here. Especially chapter IV – Human genome, respectively Article 12 on predictive genetic tests seems to be highly fruitful for further analysis. A third level for further ethical analysis can be identified in the literature which directly addresses ethical issues of genetic testing in the field of sport. While Stephen M. Roth in his genetics primer for exercise science and health only very briefly touches on the ethical aspects. But the compilation from Tamburrini/Tännsjö particularly analyses genetic technology and sports.132 It is especially the article by Munthe which bridges level one (bioethics in general) and level three (sport, ethics and genomics) by giving a crash course through the ethics of genetic testing. Munthe reminds us of the problems involved in sample-taking, the reliability of the results, risk of misunderstanding, the problem of producing additional (maybe unwanted) information, harm to third-party interests, considerations on informed consent and genetic counselling.133 The book edited by van Hilvoorde/Pasveer, especially the article by de Wert and Vos about the predictive genetic testing with athletes that explicitly addresses the ethical issues of genetic testing in the field of sports is of interest here.134 De Wert and Vos deliver an analysis which is beneficial for future investigations in the field. Especially by posing the questions: What is a responsible parenthood in the context of (preventive) genetic testing? How do the pros and cons of predictive genetic testing need to be balanced? What is the personal responsibility of the athletes in this context? How can the professional responsibility of medical experts in high-performance sports (e.g. with huge financial pressure) be defined? Is a debate on the concept of ‗medicalisation‘ of sports fruitful? What kind of conditions and limits in regard to coercive offers in medical (genetic) examination of high performance athletes need to be considered? Is a compulsory health check for all amateur athletes at all 135 justifiable or even desirable?
128
Cf. Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress, “Principles of biomedical ethics,” (2001). Cf. D. Shickle and R. Chadwick, “The ethics of screening: is 'screeningitis' an incurable disease?,” J Med Ethics 20, no. 1 (1994). 130 What is meant by “false negative” (FN) and “false positive” (FP)? FN means: someone is tested but the test shows no eveidence of a disease although the person has the certain disease. FP means: some is tested and the test result indicates that the person has the disease although the person does not have the disease at all. 131 Council_of_Europe, “Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine,” (Oviedo: 1997). 132 Claudio Tamburrini and Torbjörn Tännsjö, eds., The genetic technology and sport : ethical questions (London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2005). 133 Christian Munthe, “Ethical aspects of controlling genetic doping,” in Genetic Technology and Sport, ed. Claudio Tamburrini and Torbjörn Tännsjö (Routledge, 2005), p. 133 ff. 134 Cf. Guido De Wert and Rein Vos, “Sport als gezondheidsrisico? Een ethische verkenning van voorspellend genetisch onderzoek bij sporters.,” in Beter dan goed : over genetica en de toekomst van topsport, ed. Ivo van Hilvoorde and Bernike Pasveer (Diemen: Veen Magazines, 2005). 135 Cf. Ibid., p. 61-62. 129
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6. Perspective People who might have thought that genetic testing in sports is dreaming of the future might be surprised to hear that the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) recently launched a paper which directly addresses the aspects of genetic research and testing in sport and exercise science. 136 In this paper ethical aspects are widely neglected, thus further complementary research is needed which recognizes concerns about new technologies and which adds a critical refection on the explicit and implicit issues of genetic testing. Although Roth is uncertain what the future holds and how the majority will decide on the issue, he finds arguments in favor of genetic testing if its aim of becoming an effective prevention strategy is to be successful. ―Whether someone will submit to genetic testing before the onset of disease symptoms is an open question. Certainly, some people will and some people won‘t, but for prevention strategies to be useful, presumably a large number of individuals will need to participate. Will a majority opt for genetic screening for disease prevention? And for what diseases will people willingly undergo testing? What prevention strategies will be available based on genetic testing?‖137 A quote from a 2006 Position Paper by the European Society of Cardiology addresses the problem we might face in the future if genetic screening is implemented. ―Once diagnosis of HCM is established in the single individual, screening of close relatives is required and, if the disease-causing mutation has been identified in an affected family member, molecular genetic testing of asymptomatic at-risk family members may be advisable. […] As family genetic screening for HCM will largely be implemented in clinical practice, physicians will face the dilemma of making recommendations regarding sports participation for subjects who have only preclinical evidence of HCM (i.e. genotype positive–phenotype negative).‖138 Thus we will have people carrying a gene that is responsible for a certain disease but the persons themselves not yet displaying any pathology or symptoms. As a result we might create the so-called healthy-ill athletes. But on the other hand we might have saved another footballer from dying on the pitch.
136
See http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/news106.asp and especially Alun G. Williams et al., Genetic Research and Testing in Sport and Exercise Science: British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences - Position Stand [cited 15.09.2007]; available from http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/pdf/BASES%20position%20stand%20on%20Genetic%20Research% 20and%20Testing%20in%20Sport%20and%20Exercise%20Science.pdf. Also see: Harminka, Benefits of genetic research in sport [cited 01.03.2008]; available from http://www.huliq.com/34288/benefits-of-genetic-research-in-sport. 137 Stephen M. Roth, Genetics primer for exercise science and health, Primers in exercise science series. (Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, 2007) p.135. 138 Antonio Pelliccia et al., “Recommendations for participation in competitive sport and leisure-time physical activity in individuals with cardiomyopathies, myocarditis and pericarditis,” European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation 13 (2006): p. 878.
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References 1. Beauchamp, Tom L., and James F. Childress. ―Principles of biomedical ethics.‖ (2001): XI, 454 S. 2. Corrado, Domenico, Cristina Basso, and Gaetano Thiene. ―Essay: Sudden death in young athletes.‖ The Lancet 366, no. Supplement 1 (2005): 47-48. 3. Corrado, Domenico, and Gaetano Thiene. ―Protagonist: Routine screening of all athletes prior to participation in competitive sports should be mandatory to prevent sudden cardiac death.‖ Heart rhythm : the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society 4, no. 4 (2007): 520-524. 4. Council_of_Europe. ―Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.‖ Oviedo, 1997. 5. De Wert, Guido, and Rein Vos. ―Sport als gezondheidsrisico? Een ethische verkenning van voorspellend genetisch onderzoek bij sporters.‖ In Beter dan goed : over genetica en de toekomst van topsport, edited by Ivo van Hilvoorde and Bernike Pasveer, 44-62. Diemen: Veen Magazines, 2005. 6. Entine, Jon. Genetic engineering and sport: has the future already arrived? [cited 01.07.2007]. Available from http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0658.htm. 7. Fuertes, Santiago F. . ―Muere Antonio Puerta.‖ El Pais, 28.08.2007. 8. Harminka. Benefits of genetic research in sport [cited 01.03.2008]. Available from http://www.huliq.com/34288/benefits-of-genetic-research-in-sport. 9. Hilvoorde, Ivo van. ―Sport and Biotechnology.‖ In Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport, edited by D. Levinson and K. Christensen, 199-203. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2005. 10. IOC. Olympic Movement Medical Code [cited 10.08.2007]. Available from http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1022.pdf. 11. IOC_Medical_Commission. Sudden Cardiovascular Death in Sport. LAUSANNE RECOMMENDATIONS. [cited 10.08.2007]. Available from http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_886.pdf. 12. Jordan, B. D., N. R. Relkin, L. D. Ravdin, A. R. Jacobs, A. Bennett, and S. Gandy. ―Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 associated with chronic traumatic brain injury in boxing.‖ JAMA 278, no. 2 (1997): 136-140. 13. Loosemore, M., C. H. Knowles, and G. P. Whyte. ―Amateur boxing and risk of chronic traumatic brain injury: systematic review of observational studies.‖ BMJ 335, no. 7624 (2007): 809. 14. McCrory, Paul. ―Boxing and the risk of chronic brain injury.‖ BMJ 335, no. 7624 (2007): 781-782. 15. McNally (Chair), Eryl, and Anne Cambon-Thomsen (Rapporteur). ―25 recommendations on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic testing.‖ (2004): 32 S. 16. McNamee, Mike. ―Ethical issues regarding human enhancement technologies: Therapy, Enhancement and the traditional goals of medicine in sport.‖ Paper presented at the BPSA 4th Annual Conference, Leeds, UK, 24.03.2007. 39
17. Miah, Andy. [cited 01.07.2007]. Available from http://www.gmathletes.net/. 18. ———. Catching up with Frankenrunner – The World Anti-Doping Agency's concerns about GM athletes raise new questions about the drugs regime in sports. [cited 15.07.2007]. Available from http://www.spikedonline.com/Printable/00000006D86E.htm. 19. ———. ―Genetically modified athletes : biomedical ethics, gene doping and sport.‖ (2004): xviii, 208 S. 20. Munthe, Christian. ―Ethical aspects of controlling genetic doping.‖ In Genetic Technology and Sport, edited by Claudio Tamburrini and Torbjörn Tännsjö, 107-125: Routledge, 2005. 21. Murray, T. ―Genetic exceptonalism and future diaries: is genetic information different from other medical information?‖ In Genetic secrets : protecting privacy and confidentiality in the genetic era, edited by Mark A. Rothstein, xvi, 511 p. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. 22. Pelliccia, A., R. Fagard, H. H. BjØrnstad, A. Anastassakis, E. Arbustini, D. Assanelli, A. Biffi, M. Borjesson, F. Carré, D. Corrado, P. Delise, U. Dorwarth, A. Hirth, H. Heidbuchel, E. Hoffmann, K. P. Mellwig, N. Panhuyzen-Goedkoop, A. Pisani, E. E. Solberg, F. van-Buuren, L. Vanhees, C. Blomstrom-Lundqvist, A. Deligiannis, D. Dugmore, M. Glikson, P. I. Hoff, A. Hoffmann, D. Horstkotte, J. E. Nordrehaug, J. Oudhof, W. J. McKenna, M. Penco, S. Priori, T. Reybrouck, J. Senden, A. Spataro, and G. Thiene. ―Recommendations for competitive sports participation in athletes with cardiovascular disease: a consensus document from the Study Group of Sports Cardiology of the Working Group of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Physiology and the Working Group of Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology.‖ Eur Heart J 26, no. 14 (2005): 1422-1445. 23. Pelliccia, Antonio, Domenico Corrado, Hans Halbor Bjørnstad, Nicole PanhuyzenGoedkoop, Axel Urhausen, Fracois Carré, Aris Anastasakis, Luc Vanhees, Eloisa Arbustini, and Silvia Priori. ―Recommendations for participation in competitive sport and leisure-time physical activity in individuals with cardiomyopathies, myocarditis and pericarditis.‖ European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation 13 (2006): 876–885. 24. Roth, Stephen M. Genetics primer for exercise science and health, Primers in exercise science series. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, 2007. 25. Ryall, Emily. ―Defining the Human (II): Separating mind & body, and avoiding category mistakes.‖ Paper presented at the BPSA 4th Annual Conference, Leeds, UK, 23.03.2007. 26. Savulescu, Julian. ―Compulsory genetic testing for APOE Epsilon 4 and boxing.‖ In The genetic technology and sport : ethical questions, edited by Claudio Tamburrini, 136-146. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2005. 27. Shickle, D., and R. Chadwick. ―The ethics of screening: is 'screeningitis' an incurable disease?‖ J Med Ethics 20, no. 1 (1994): 12-18.
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28. Tamburrini, Claudio, and Torbjörn Tännsjö, eds. The genetic technology and sport : ethical questions. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2005. 29. Vos, Rein, Guido de Wert, and Arno Müller. Sport, genetics and prevention [cited 01.06.2007]. Available from http://www.society-genomics.nl/?page=527. 30. Williams, Alun G., Henning Wackerhage, Andy Miah, Roger C. Harris, and Hugh Montgomery. Genetic Research and Testing in Sport and Exercise Science : British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences - Position Stand [cited 15.09.2007]. Available from http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/pdf/BASES%20position%20stand%20on%20Genetic%2 0Research%20and%20Testing%20in%20Sport%20and%20Exercise%20Science.pdf. 31. Wurmdobler, Christopher. ―Tod im Spiel – Immer wieder sterben junge Fußballer an plötzlichem Herzversagen. Meist führen erbliche Defekte zum Kollaps.‖ DIE ZEIT, 06.09.2007.
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MANDATORY DNA TESTING IN CYCLING: THE ROLE OF GENETIC SCIENCE IN CONSTRUCTING THE CREDIBLE PERFORMANCE Ivo van Hilvoorde Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Introduction In May 2006, Operación Puerto led to one of the biggest doping scandals in the history of sport. Many bags of manipulated blood, belonging to elite athletes from a variety of sports, were found in the clinic of the Spanish sports medic Eufemanio Fuentes. Following this major doping scandal, the cycling authorities proposed that professional cyclists be subjected to mandatory DNA testing. It was believed that the use of DNA would make it easier to identify other human bodily substances, such as blood and urine. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, also reflected on the possibilities of creating a DNA database to collect vital genetic information from all top-level athletes. Rogge stated: ‗Today, the riders have to give urine and blood samples. Tomorrow, this has to include DNA also. It's not very painful: a pin prick inside the cheek, a bit of hair... that's less painful than blood extraction. The data would be well-stored and protected. Tell me, what's the problem?‘ In this paper, I will discuss some of the practical and ethical implications of such a proposal. Practical difficulties include the organisation of a DNA database, particularly with respect to the question of how and when the athletes (of the future) should be identified. The establishment of such a DNA database could give rise to new strategic behaviour, such as an increasing secrecy in the nurturing of young athletes. Moral issues include the danger of violating privacy, protecting DNA from being used for other purposes, the increasing criminalisation of athletes, and problems relating to consent and autonomy. The sport authorities‘ efforts may be understood as the next step in their attempts to improve their credibility and reduce the general public‘s growing cynicism about the supposed ‗cleanness‘ of elite sport. While these proposals are intended to create transparency and credibility, they may instead lead to greater suspicion and a situation in which athletes are ‗guilty until proved innocent‘.
Mandatory DNA testing and the credibility of professional cycling Throughout the past decade there has been a growing debate about, and also an increasing number of publications dealing with, the application of gene technology and gene doping in sport. Inspired by modern developments in genetic science, what most of this discourse has in common is that it is largely based on speculations about partly unknown futures. Despite this increasing attention for genetics, it is striking that the first actual use of gene technology has not really been anticipated; namely, the use of DNA to identify other human bodily materials, such as blood and urine. This appears to be a rather clear and simple procedure. Taking DNA from all athletes seems to be the easiest and most objective way of ensuring that the ‗owner‘ of the blood that might be manipulated is properly identified. The blood bags, which were found in the clinic of the Spanish sports medic Eufemanio Fuentes, belonged to elite athletes from a variety of sports such as cycling, track and field, tennis, football and basketball. According to the information (although it is still not clear how 42
selective and reliable this is), Fuentes assisted about 200 athletes. Thirty-four of them were professional racing cyclists. Many of the cyclists that were on the list (among them elite riders such as Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich) were excluded from races as a result. However, none of them have yet been officially convicted in accordance with international sports doping regulations. The fact that no names other than cyclists were mentioned in this scandal is a particularly sensitive subject; there were only rumours about footballers from major Spanish teams and elite tennis players. The case was officially dropped (in March 2007); due to a lack of evidence that a crime had actually been committed under Spanish law (most of the blood bags were coded with just initials or the names of the cyclists‘ dogs). Following this major scandal, it was clear that something had to be done. At the very least to show some good will and regain some kind of public credibility. The cycling authorities thus proposed the imposition of mandatory DNA testing on professional cyclists. The cycling community itself, the International Association of Professional Cycling teams (AIGCP) agreed to the use of DNA testing. In early 2007, most professional cycling teams asked their riders to provide their DNA and authorise the International Cycling Union (UCI) to collect the DNA samples. The UCI made the professional cyclists sign a ‗commitment to a new cycling‘. Part of this commitment reads as follows: ‗Currently, there is a climate of suspicion. It is undermining the credibility of my sport and is eroding the trust of the public, authorities, organisers and my colleagues. […] I declare to the Spanish Law, that my DNA is at its disposal, so that it can be compared with the blood samples seized in the Puerto affair.‘ In several respects, it appears that cycling has been used as an example, and as an experiment to introduce a highly controversial technology. Nevertheless, authorities in cycling and sport in general, among whom Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, do not regard the creation of a DNA database, in order to assemble the vital genetic details of all top-level athletes, as problematic. As Rogge stated: ‗Today, the riders have to give urine and blood samples. Tomorrow, this has to include DNA also. It‘s not very painful: a pinprick inside the cheek, a bit of hair... that's less painful than blood extraction. The data would be well-stored and protected. Tell me, what‘s the problem?‘ „What‟s the problem?‟ Although many professional cyclists must have been overwhelmed by the speed at which the authorities proposed the introduction of mandatory DNA testing, few of them openly criticised the proposal. This is far from surprising given that any resistance to anti-doping measures may arouse suspicion and lead to a bad reputation.139 The few critical responses that were printed in the media, as well as the reactions of other experts, can be grouped into two major arguments. Mandatory DNA testing would be: 1. an assault on the privacy of the riders 2. an unacceptable step towards more criminalisation How seriously should these objections be taken? Should mandatory DNA testing be regarded as a necessary modification or enforcement of pre-existing rule (I will not discuss the pros and 139
Although cyclists made no explicit statements that were positive about this proposal, there is no reason to believe that all riders were negative about it. Indeed, many athletes support the anti-doping policy, not in the least because they do not trust their competitors.
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cons of the doping rule as such in this paper). Suppose one adheres to the sport ethical basis of the doping rule itself, can mandatory DNA testing then simply be defined as an auxiliary rule; an extra measure to enforce the existing anti-doping regulations? Or is there more at stake? What do the objections, which have been raised about privacy and criminalisation, actually mean?
1. Do DNA tests violate the privacy of athletes? ‗Privacy‘ is a complex concept that cannot be easily defined. Privacy can be regarded a state with an intrinsic value (a good in itself) or as an instrumental value (good for other things, such as autonomy, dignity, wellbeing). There is little use in presenting definitions of privacy without weighing them up against other values or referring to the specific context and specific technology, which is regarded as potentially compromising people‘s privacy. Nowadays, privacy is often weighed up against safety. In elite sport it is well-known - and even widely accepted - that one‘s individual privacy must to some extent be relinquished in order to protect a certain amount of credibility with regard to the alleged use of illicit performance enhancing substances. In order to understand some of the critique that the proposal for mandatory DNA testing generated, it is useful to make a distinction between three types of privacy: a. physical privacy – access to people and personal spaces b. informational privacy – access to personal information c. decisional privacy – interference with personal choices
1.a Physical privacy One of the first ‗classical‘ interpretations of privacy concerns access to people and personal spaces: the ‗right to be left alone‘ (1890). This right is not directly linked to the discussion on DNA testing, but it does illustrate developments within the same repressive system. This type of physical privacy has changed drastically throughout the past 25 years. During the early 1980s there was serious discussion on privacy, which was related to athletes‘ personal lives. In 1982, with regard to the ethical implications of urinalysis, Thompson wrote: ‗Urinalysis provokes serious questions regarding the separation of athletic activity from the athlete‘s personal life‘ (Thompson, 1982). These ‗serious questions‘, however, do not affect the antidoping policy in any way. Quite to the contrary. In 1989, out-of-competition testing was officially discussed for the very first time. By 1999, the WADA had implemented this proposal worldwide. There was renewed interest in this interpretation of privacy in relation to sport following the exclusion of Michael Rasmussen from the Tour de France (2007) for lying about his ‗whereabouts‘. Tour Director Christian Prudhomme commented on this affair saying ‗We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts became unbearable‘. It is at the very least remarkable that, according to the Tour Director, this was not cheating and that his lying about his whereabouts was in itself reason to exclude Rasmussen from the competition. Absolute honesty and openness is required with respect to the exact location of every rider (so they can be tested at every hour and on every occasion during the day). This implies a total denial of privacy with respect to the right to be
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left alone. Modern elite athletes are forced to conform to a policy, which stipulates they can be tested any time at any place. In 25 years of professional cycling, the distinction between athletic and private life has almost completely disappeared. The same also applies to many other sports in which the antidoping authorities claim the right to know the whereabouts of the athlete. The individual‘s personal life has become part of the role of an elite athlete and is now integral to the discussion on the credibility of performance. Furthermore, it is also remarkable that there has been little discussion (at least in the literature) on privacy in relation to this out-of competition testing. Indeed, IOC president Rogge believes that the current methods are not invasive enough to detect and prevent the use of doping and has even argued that the greater intervention of police authorities is necessary. ‗A DNA database, together with more controls, home searches, telephone taps... We have to find the next Fuentes fast.‘ These measures would not be so worrying if they had actually proved to be effective and credible. However, every measure in the history of elite sports that has led to the decrease of the privacy of athletes has proved ineffective. Moreover, in this case, one can only wait for the next proposal and will ultimately end up in a situation where the (physical) privacy of athletes is completely controlled.
1.b Informational privacy The discussion on informational privacy is closely connected to the origins of the popular press. Modern computer technology and developments in bioinformatics are responsible for the fact that informational privacy is now the most dominant conception and interpretation of privacy. The notion that we are all now experiencing the end of privacy has also come to dominate both the public debate and the commonsense conception of privacy. This is wellillustrated by some recent book titles: ‗The End of Privacy‘ (Whitaker 1999); ‗The End of Privacy‘ (Sykes 1999); ‗The Death of Privacy?‘ (Froomkin 2000); ‗The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century‘ (Garfinkel 2000). Most authorities in the world of sport are not characterised by this kind of pessimism. In case of the collection of DNA, according to Rogge, these data would be well-stored and protected. This may well sound trustworthy, but some crucial questions still remain unanswered. For example: -
How and under what conditions will the DNA be stored? How will the authorities deal with questions relating to consent and legitimacy, as has been the case with the discussion on bio-banks?
The use of DNA in sport is not intended for anything other than to identify blood and urine. Nonetheless, there may be unknown applications and unspecified uses of the DNA in the future. In the letter, which the cyclists had to sign, it states that the DNA can be used (by any organisation that deals with the (legal) consequences of doping) for current and future cases. The riders are thus forced to ‗consent‘ without exactly knowing how their DNA might be used in the future. Even if the UCI can ensure that the DNA is in fact only used in prosecutions, such as the Fuentes case, there is no guarantee that this information can and will be used in order to make fair and transparent decisions about the athletes. Again, there are good reasons for athletes to sacrifice even more of their privacy, when this evidently helps to create a more balanced playing field with regard to the unequal distribution of performance enhancing methods and substances. The possible merits are, however, uncertain and some of the consequences cannot be predicted. During the 2007 World Cycling Championships in 45
Stuttgart, it also became evident that there was no legal basis for this proposal. Paolo Bettini refused to sign the letter, after which the organisation tried to exclude him from the race. However, they had no legal grounds to do so. Bettini was allowed to participate in the race and became world champion for the second time in a row. When privacy is at stake in issues of detection and safety, the following commonsense conception seems to prevail: ‗if you have nothing to hide, the violation of privacy is OK‘. Yet the question remains: do we (and the athletes) know exactly what we (they) want to hide? And, in this case, do these sportsmen know what they might want to hide? For example, do they want to conceal genetic information that is health-related or performance related? Privacy is a human right in itself, regardless of the question of how much an individual has or wants to hide from others.
1.c decisional privacy This third type of privacy concerns interference with personal choices. Some professional cyclists called the UCI dictatorial, because it failed to consult any of them about this decision. The issue of how and whether individual athletes should be involved in any change of rules is a complex one in itself. One can argue that the decision to change a sporting rule has nothing to do with personal choices. Compliance with the rules is a necessary condition for participation in any sport. An individual tennis player may not agree with the introduction of Hawk-Eye technology in tennis, but this is not considered to interfere with personal choice. Defenders of mandatory DNA testing might argue the same. For example: ‗An athlete‘s decision to compete in sport implies consent to referential authority, which means that athletes cannot use the cover of privacy rights to prevent athletic authorities from trying to detect and punish cheating.‘ (Ioannidis 2003) An important difference with Hawk-Eye, however, is the fact that DNA can also be used for other purposes and that bodily material can contain all kinds of personal information. HawkEye cannot show anything other than the line of the court and it is clear that this new technology makes it possible for decisions about whether or not the ball is out to be taken more objectively. It is very obvious that the proposal, which was offered as a ‗choice‘, was highly coercive. The following statement made by Patrick Lefèvere, President of AIGCP, illustrates this well: ‗We cannot force the riders to agree to our request, but who refuses will have to assume the consequences. For example, a team could decide not to renew their contract.‘ In other words: we cannot compel you to sign, but those who refuse to do so will be punished. The so-called informed consent by the cycling teams was, in fact, achieved through coercion. Again, one can argue whether modified regulations are in any way related to ‗personal choices‘. However, mandatory DNA testing is not just simple adjustment of a sporting rule. It has some serious implications about which the cyclists themselves could, at the very least, have been consulted. 2. Are riders being criminalised? After the AIGPC proposed the introduction of mandatory DNA testing, the reaction of many commentators in the media, including some elite cyclists was one of great disbelief and dismay. In particular, the fact that DNA testing is largely associated with serious criminal acts can explain the initial reactions of elite cyclists like Bettini who declared: ‗I don‘t want to be treated as a criminal‘.
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It is easy to sympathise with this reaction, given that mandatory DNA testing is usually carried out on suspects of crimes, such as murder, rape, incest and kidnapping. However, it is doubtful that the term crimimalisation is in itself a valid argument for opposing the proposal. The term criminalisation is problematic in much the same way as the use of terms, such as geneticalisation or medicalisation, is. When these terms are used, it is not always entirely clear if they are intended descriptive or normative concepts. The cyclists and many commentators appear to use the term criminalisation in an evaluative fashion: in other words, this development is bad in itself. Athletes, even when they break the rules, are not criminals and should, therefore, not be treated as such. The authorities and officials who agreed with the proposal use the term in quite an opposite way, namely prescriptively: athletes who violate the doping rule should be criminalised. What most people probably agree upon is the descriptive meaning of the term: criminalisation is something that simply happens in elite sport. In criminology, criminalisation is ‗the process by which behaviours and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals‘ If doping is considered a criminal offence, then one could argue that it is the cyclists themselves who are criminalising the sport by breaking the doping rule. The rules of the game are being legalised, and the offence thus criminalised. As such, this is not necessarily problematic. Complying with the rules is simply an essential part of sport. The criminalisation of a sporting rule can, however, be problematic when the means to control the rule are not in proportion with the offence itself. Violating human (privacy) rights, in order to ensure that one sporting rule is upheld, by treating it as if it were a severe criminal act is highly problematic indeed. If DNA is taken from all athletes, instead of only from those who are under suspicion of some transgression, criminalisation is not a good argument in itself to oppose mandatory DNA testing. It does not necessarily result in the increase of suspicion. No group will be more greatly criminalised than another if all athletes have been tested in advance. However, this is not the case. The professional cyclists have a good point when they argue that they are being more greatly criminalised than their colleagues who practice other sports.
Conclusion For many decades, the Tour de France has been one of the most popular and prestigious sporting events in Europe. Many people believe that doping scandals will continue to threaten this popularity. DNA tests could contribute to improving the credibility of cycling, but only if it is accompanied by the increased credibility of the related institutions as well (i.e. with regard to testing procedures, consistency in the imposition of sanctions, etc). The success of introducing new technology, such as mandatory DNA testing, greatly depends on the organisations that make use of this kind of new technology. The outcome of the Tour de France has become a complex and obscure process, with an increasing number of institutions being involved in the process of trying to apply the rules and making it clear who is being punished for what doping offence. Apart from the cyclists, the cycling teams, the sponsors, the UCI, the AIGCP (International Association of Professional Cycling Teams) and the ASO (organiser of the Tour), WADA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), even State governments, high courts and Police authorities are now involved. There are an increasing number of ‗judges‘, which has resulted in uncertain winners and losers in many categories.
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It is an illusion to think that mandatory DNA testing will transform this process into an objective and transparent procedure. There are several ethical as well as practical problems relating to mandatory DNA testing: -
-
Ethical: does it conflict with some of the basic rights of individual athletes (e.g. privacy)? Who is controlling the personal data? Is there transparency with respect to the use, control and protection of this data? Practical: does it actually achieve what it sets out to? (fairer application of a rule; enhancing credibility)
Does mandatory DNA testing really contribute to the credibility of the sport? Two values stand in direct opposition: credibility (of cycling) and privacy (of the individual athlete). What is meant as an attempt to restore credibility (trust between sport and public) seems to be sign of a crisis of trust between institutions, between institutions and riders and between sponsors and authorities. Discussions on enforcing rules, such as DNA testing or the athletes‘ whereabouts, often focus on the individual athlete. Such discourse shifts the attention away from a more crucial problem, namely the lack of credibility of the doping rule itself, and the institutions that are supposed to make sure that the rule is applied in a fair and credible way. ‗Organisations are inconsistent in their application of sanctions, of reporting positive tests, or simply of lacking the will to enforce their quasi-legal policies.‘ (Malloy & Zakus, 2002: 208). The outcome is increasingly being influenced by legal interpretations and other institutional influences. The real threat is that the final result of sport will not be based upon athletic performance, but on the image and perceived credibility of the athlete. References 1. Ioannidis, G. (2003) Legal Regulation of Doping in Sport: The Case For The Prosecution. Obiter (November 2003). 2. Malloy, D.C. & Zakus, D.H. (2002). Ethics of Drug Testing in Sport – An Invasion of Privacy Justified? Sport, Educations and Society, Vol. 7 (2), 203-218. 3. Rothstein, M. A. (ed.) (1997). Genetic Secrets. Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic Era. New Haven/London: Yale University Press. 4. Teetzel, S. (2007). Respecting Privacy in Detecting Illegitimate enhancements in athletes. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 1 (2), 159-170. 5. Thompson, P. B. (1982). Privacy and the Urinalysis Testing of Athletes. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, IX, 60-65.
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PARTICIPATION VERSUS PERFORMANCE INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS
IN
AMERICAN
Adam G. Pfleegor State University of New York College at Brockport
American interscholastic or high school athletics is a level of competition that is often neglected in sport research, but it is a crucial developmental level for athletes and individuals. In the United States, interscholastic sport can be broken down into three sub-levels: Modified, usually consisting of 7th and 8th graders; Junior Varsity (JV), consisting primarily of 9th and 10th graders; and finally Varsity, consisting generally of 11th and 12th graders. The years that American interscholastic athletics covers, is one of the most critical stages in a young athlete‘s development. Their athletic and moral views are still being created and therefore can be shaped and formed such that the moral fiber of our sporting community is affected greatly in one direction or the other. High school athletic mission statements clearly state what should be taught and emphasized at each level. They emphasize that the focus should be placed on sport specific skill acquisition and the teaching of certain core values. However, when observing practice sessions and competitions at each level, a large disparity between these mission statements and the actual practices of coaches and athletes becomes evident. The fact that many athletes are being taught advanced skills at too young of an age and many basic skills and tactics of the game are being lost has become increasingly apparent with further observation. Recent years have also brought on a dramatic increase in the phenomenon of ―playing up‖, which occurs when the best athletes from younger age groups are promoted to play at a more advanced level. Coaches believe that these younger athletes will greatly enhance their skills by playing with the better competition, although many neglect the psychological and emotional development of the young athletes they promote. Furthermore, coaches tend to use this practice not for the development of that single athlete, but for team gains as well as for their own benefits such as improving their reputation, status and opportunities to coach at a higher level or with elite teams. In order to understand the playing-up phenomena, you first must understand the Power and Performance Model of sport. The main reason for such phenomena is this view of sport that is starting to inform more programs and individuals within interscholastic sport. As set out by Coakley (2007), this ―Power and Performance‖ model is characterized by a win-first attitude that coaches often strive to instill in their athletes. The Power and Performance model emphasizes using your personal strength and athletic prowess to dominate opponents. A second model described by Coakley, the Pleasure and Participation model, has emerged to balance the Power and Performance stance. This is the philosophic model primarily influencing the youngest levels of youth sport today. It focuses primarily on the acquisition of skills and the enjoyment of the athletes. The ―Power and Performance‖ model has started to trickle down to younger levels of sport from the professional and elite contexts, and its effects have become increasingly evident in American interscholastic athletics. At this level, an unjustified shift from the Pleasure and Participation model to the Power and Performance model occurs, and values such as fun, fair play and sportspersonship are often forsaken or deemphasized in favor of winning and dominating performances.
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The adolescent years are critical in the personal growth of each athlete, therefore an appropriate model of sport must be developed that will nurture athletes through these years. However the new model must still allow for competition and skill testing and mastery. The purpose of this paper will be to take an in-depth look at the two models currently manifesting themselves in American interscholastic athletics and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these models in relation to athletic and personal development. A third model will then be formulated that incorporates the strengths of the first two models while attempting to correct the problems that their weaknesses create. Finally possible objections to this new model will be considered and discussed. The manner in which athletes are categorized in interscholastic athletics is unique to our country. The levels used to be solely based on age, but now they are based on a combination of age and athletic ability. Many high school athletic mission statements focus on the positive characteristics and values that coaches and sport participation are supposed to be instilling in our young athletes. The values that are most often mentioned are character, perseverance leadership, fair play, discipline and sportspersonship. Most neglect and others barely touch on the thought of athletic superiority and winning. A common ideal prevails in all of these statements; they generally claim that sports foster certain values and characteristics in their athletes, and go on to state that coaches should work to instill these values and characteristics within their athletes. Yet, they do not posit ways in which they can accomplish the aforementioned task. One would even wonder if the individuals who wrote the mission statement even looked at any evidence of whether sports in general can actually instill these values and characteristics. In fact even as far back as 1968, Edwards acknowledges ―competitive sports do not build character from scratch, it possibly reinforces character that is already there‖ and then more recently Simon adds that ―sports have less of an impact on character development than most seem to think.‖ With statements like this from individuals leading the way in sports studies, one must begin to wonder if these schools mission statements are being upheld. The common ideal is exemplified in the athletic mission statement of Falmouth High School in Falmouth, MA. It states that, ―The central goal of this athletic program is to foster certain characteristics and qualities. These include respect for self and others, honesty, integrity, commitment, reliability, common sense, and perseverance. The values learned through the athletic experience will help individuals become more productive members of the community.‖ On paper this statement is saying that all athletes should receive positive values and characteristics from their sport experience, and in turn become more community oriented individuals. However it can be observed that most coaches do not work toward making their athletes into better people, but instead they work to turn them into athletic ―machines‖ that possess win-first attitudes. Many coaches are so consumed by wins, losses, and how they and their programs are portrayed in the media, that they leave behind player development and common sense in pursuit of these personal goals. This winfirst attitude is the main reason for the recent drastic increase in the ―playing up phenomenon‖ and also a primary component of the Power and Performance model seen throughout the higher levels of interscholastic sport today. As previously stated, ―playing up‖ occurs when the best athletes from younger age groups are promoted to play at a more advanced level. Coaches give many reasons for promoting the players such as trying to accelerate talented athletes‘ skill progression; frequently however, the emotional state and maturity of these athletes are not taken into consideration. When these athletes are pulled up early, they often forgo their modified level sporting experience which remains a crucial stage in athletic development.
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The main purpose of modified sports is to introduce the athletes to the game and give these young athletes an opportunity to work on basic skills. Many modified programs accomplish this task; however often stress winning as well. Although I would never discourage athletes or coaches from trying their best while remaining with in the written rules of the game in order to have a positive outcome at the end of a contest, the main focus should not be on the final outcome at the modified level. All players should play equal time in the modified system of athletics. Basic skills and techniques should be taught repeatedly so that these young athletes can obtain a level of mastery in them. Once these fundamentals are mastered, coaches can move on to more advanced skills. This generally occurs for athletes during their participation in JV level athletics. At this level, the basic skills should be reiterated and emphasized, however more advanced skills and tactics should be introduced and appropriately taught and drilled. When allowed to play up, athletes are physically capable of playing at the higher level; however they are not emotionally mature enough to handle the increased intensity and level of thinking. The only consideration used by coaches is their athletic ability. Generally athletes in this situation continue to progress in skill development, but only because of their natural talent. However, due to the emotionally mature situation that they are thrown into, the true high potential of the gifted athlete is never reached. ―Playing up‖ harms the emotional development of most of these athletes, which occurs due to the increased amount of stress placed on them to perform. This practice as a whole leads us into the Power and Performance model that is currently informing interscholastic sport today. Due to the stresses placed on winning within this model, coaches feel obligated to promote the best young athletes in order to accomplish the main goal of winning contests. This model, which originally only was associated with elite athletics, is slowly creeping to younger athletes and the programs in which they are a part of. The Power and Performance Model was introduced and examined thoroughly by sport sociologist Jay Coakley. The model is most frequently seen at the varsity level yet it also can be seen creeping down into JV and modified athletics. It attempts to teach and encourage the growth of discipline and respect in the athletes it is encompassing. There are key elements to the Power and Performance model that make it easily identifiable within an athletic setting. The first is that it calls for the use of the athlete‘s strength, speed and power to push their boundaries and limits in order to achieve domination over an opponent. Excellence, in the eyes of the coaches and players, can only be achieved through success during competition. All the goals set by the aforementioned coaches and players are outcome goals; process goals and the mastery of skills are often neglected due to their win-first attitude. Along with the importance placed on final outcomes of contests, a great deal of importance is also placed on records and stats. Records and stats, alongside winning, are the main driving force for athletes and teams. With this mindset, teams are more prone to bend or break certain rules and look for any possible advantage that they could gain over an opponent. Teams and programs following this model also use tryouts and cuts at the interscholastic level. This is often a point of controversy because at younger ages in an athletes‘ development, it is hard to determine the true potential that these athletes may possess. This model also creates negative feelings and the lack of a proper definition of what an opponent is. It defines an opponent as an enemy and someone that is only there to stop you from reaching your ultimate goal. Everyone involved tends to lose the realization that interscholastic sport is there for enjoyment. Instead of teaching the positive values set forth in the mission statements, it tends to instill aggression due to the win at all costs attitude and selfishness through the emphasis placed on records, outcomes, and personal success. This 51
model is the main reason for such practices as the ―playing-up‖ phenomenon as well as others that are associated with a win first attitude. Although you can see the many drawbacks to this Power and Performance model it also has some strengths that can be utilized to incorporate into a better model for these players and coaches to follow. This model can lead coaches to emphasize certain positive values such as courage, resilience, discipline and hard-work. You must keep in mind however that overtraining should not be considered hard-work and playing through injury should not be considered resilience. Courage and resilience can be shown when a player must give everything they have in the last seconds of a game because they want to win that contest. The outcome goal in this instance reinforces these two positive values. Discipline and hard-work are reinforced through long grueling practice sessions that athletes must overcome. Many times an athlete doesn‘t want to participate in such training but the discipline within that athlete makes him work hard through the tough times, which in turn increases their athletic performances. The Power and Performance Model is a strict and intense model of sport. Due to this, another model has emerged to counter this model, the Pleasure and Participation model. The Pleasure and Participation Model is primarily seen in the youngest levels of youth sport and was originally intended for use in the modified level of interscholastic sport as well. However with the increase in influence of the Power and Performance model, the modified level is no longer being informed by the Pleasure and Participation Model. The primary objective of this model is learning skills that can help individuals both on and off the field. Coaches who subscribe to this model strive to teach rules of the game, a positive value system and some basic skills that can be used during these contests. They also encourage teamwork, communication, and having fun. The athletes that are informed by this model have shown that the main reason they play is to have fun and to be a part of a team atmosphere. This model should continue from youth sport into the modified level of interscholastic athletics. Teams that employ this model should not utilize tryouts or cuts. Every player should be allowed to make the team as well as get the same amount of playing time during practices and contests. This will allow the coaching staff to further analyze the skill level of all their players within the entire program. Each player is then provided with an equal opportunity to succeed and build their knowledge and skill base in that specific sport. No emphasis should be placed on final outcomes, stats or records within this model. Score should be kept, however, coaching staff should encourage and remind players that process goals are far more important than outcome goals. Athletes should be taught how to compete the correct way within this model by having aggression and certain dangerous tactics curbed. At first glance the Pleasure and Participation Model seems completely idealistic for all ages and level of sport. It works towards having both teammates and opponents gain a mastery of the basic skills. However, this model is too idealistic for older and more elite levels of athletics and therefore unrealistic to implement. Yet, this model has many positive aspects that can be used in the creation of the new model. On the other side, since competition and outcomes are so deemphasized, when using aspects of this model you must make sure that the competition itself is not completely lost. In the long run athletics are a test of skills against an opponent. Although outcomes should not be the most important aspect, to completely ignore them is unrealistic and detracts from the meaning of sport. By taking a closer look at both of the models that are currently being employed in interscholastic sport, it is clear that a middle ground is easily achievable and much needed. 52
By integrating the positive aspects of both the Pleasure and Participation and the Power and Performance Models as well as addressing their weaknesses, a new model of interscholastic sport, the Process and Performance Model, can be formulated. This model should be introduced at the modified level by utilizing a half and half approach alongside the Pleasure and Participation Model. The Process and Performance Model should then completely consume both the JV and Varsity levels. The main focus that this model revolves around is Simon‘s idea of ―a mutual quest for excellence.‖ This idea is allowing for the true character and aesthetic aspects of sport to show through. It allows two athletes, or two teams to test their skill level against one another in a fair manner. With the Process and Performance Model a shift in skill teaching and development takes place. No basic skills will be taught, they will only be reinforced taking into consideration that the new modified half and half approach has already instilled the basic skill knowledge into the athletes. Advanced skills and sport specific tactics will be taught instead. Opponents must be viewed as individuals who are enabling you to show your skill level. In the Process and Performance Model the better athletes on the team will play. This means that not every athlete will see the field during tight contests. However, since domination over an opponent has no place in interscholastic sport, all athletes should play during a one-sided contest. The win-first attitude can not be a part of the coaching staffs‘ or players‘ mindset, yet winning is not completely deemphasized. Importance can still be placed on the outcome of the contests, yet it must be stressed that the only reason an outcome is important is to show which squad has shown a greater mastery of the skills at hand. No personal records or stats should be kept. Stats and records tend to encourage individual play over team play, and since there is no long a win-first attitude, players should be willing to lend their personal skills to the team and to a greater goal. A major objection to this would be that NCAA recruiting would struggle in knowing who to recruit and who were the better athletes at the varsity level. However, this statement does not take into consideration that an NCAA level team would never recruit a player based on stats or records alone. College teams observe players countless times and through this process they know whether that particular player could be an asset to their program. Without the stats being kept it may take scouts and NCAA coaches more time to properly research the players, but the benefits in this situation would greatly outweigh the negative aspects. The core values of resilience, courage, hard work, discipline and responsibility must be encouraged and emphasized by the coaches. Although as mentioned before, sport can not instill a value in an athlete from scratch, these five, as well as others, can greatly be enhanced through proper athletic participation This model also makes sure that moral education is not completely lost. Coaches need to add to what the Participation and Enjoyment Model in youth and modified sport has already attempted to instill in our young athletes. If a shift occurs so that no moral education is being emphasized, anything that the athletes had learned will be quickly lost and a shift back to a win-first attitude will rapidly occur. Within this model, merit should be awarded, yet should be focused toward the athletes who are excelling at the skill development process. The last aspect of the Process and Performance Model is that fun must be stressed. As before mentioned the main reason for young athletes‘ participation in a sport is to have fun. The love of the game cannot be lost or the athletes desire to continue to play will be greatly diminished. It is a misnomer that fun and performance cannot coincide; in fact it is the exact opposite. The more fun athletes and individuals are having while participating in their respective sporting settings, the better the personal performance that particular individual will have. 53
As you can see, the Power and Performance Model that is currently being employed in interscholastic athletics is not concentrating on any aspect set forth in most high school mission statements. This being said, the Pleasure and Participation Model of sport would accomplish these goals, however as aforementioned, is much too idealistic to implement within this age level. The Process and Performance Model creates a proper interscholastic sporting setting that incorporates the schools goals set forth in the mission statement. However, winning and contest performance are not completely de-emphasized such as in the Pleasure and Participation Model. The Process and Performance model not only creates a better atmosphere within practices and contests; it encourages proper positive characteristic and value enhancement in our young athletes. References: 1. Coakley, Jay. Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. 9th ed. McGraw-Hill: 2007.
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PHENOMENOLOGY IN SPORT
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BODY EXPERIENCE AND TECHNIQUES OF THE SELF Rui Machado Gomes University of Coimbra, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education
Abstract Proposing a sociological and comprehensive model that can understand the historical and social conditions which made possible for man to build himself as an object of reflexivity, we suggest that the perspective of the body like an unitary being should be abandoned. Instead of speaking about an entity intrinsic to the body it is suggested that the body is the result of a specific body regime that leads a certain relation with the embodied individual and of this with the notion of body totality. This paper analyses those devices and mechanisms trough a theoretical approach that use the Foucault concepts of governmentality – the techniques and processes trough which expert knowledge constitutes normalized bodies and subjectivities – and technologies of subjectivity – a set of ethical techniques about itself which has in the subjectivity its own effect. The techniques of the self are voluntary reflection practices through which individuals try to change themselves, establishing behavior rules, and modifying their unique form of being. Body education is a suitable context to the expression of pedagogical ways which spread a certain set of experiences of the self. This experience has in the body practices context an important way of development of the contemporaneous subjectivities built upon a specific self-centered sensibility. Sports practices include pedagogical devices that are the means which contribute to set up or transform one‘s own experience. For instances, if we analyse the physical maintenance practices we will verify that theses include: 1) optical devices oriented to self-observation and self-vigilance on which is determined what is visible from the subject to himself; 2) discursive devices oriented to establish what the subject should say about himself; 3) moral devices where the ways on which a subject should judge himself are given according to a rule; 4) self-regulatory devices that establish what a subject can and should do with himself.
Introduction This paper examines body images as the product of normative, moral and commercial discourses on the body. Understand how ―obesity‖, ―slim‖ and ―fit‖ are not only empirical characteristics of regulated/unregulated bodies, but the effect of discourses about bodies is the main aim of this analysis of the impact of consumer society in the self-identities construction. Social representations of the body and body practices will be studied in relationship with the impact of consumer society. The body has become a major focus for personal strategies of balance, and improving physical health and quality of life. Jogging, slimming, keep-fit, and dieting plans are all activities designed to manage body size, composition and/or physique. The management and molding of the body has become increasingly central to the presentation of self-image, and this as been backed up by a growing industry catering for dieting and general body care. The age at which people experience anxiety about their body shape and weight appears to be getting younger, and research suggests that a substantial number of young girls and boys are unhappy with their bodies (Turner, 2000). The stress placed on appearance by advertising, diet industries, fashion and sport icons put forward strong and limited images of what bodies should be. This pressure mainly affects women and is, nowadays, connected with the association between beauty, health and status (Shilling, 2003). 56
The unprecedented amount of attention given to the personal construction of healthy bodies promotes a self-care regime designed to prevent the onset of numerous degenerative diseases, such as diabetes or heart disease. Many such diseases are increasingly portrayed as avoidable through the combination of appropriate diet and sufficient quantities of exercise. These new regimes of self-responsibility promote an image of the body as an island of security and are increasingly associated with appearance and the presentation of self. Concerns about body image and presentation have been facilitated by the production of a great number of self-help books, magazines and television programs, dietary supplements and exercise plans. Eating and dieting are topics of a global agro-industry complex which connects, through advertising and fashion, personal status, sociability and appearance. Crisis and body discourses Life in the 21st century is dominated by a crisis of the body. The search for an immediate and present meaning to human life is one of its principal signs. The pressure to remain young and attractive, and an increased obsession with health, fitness, diet and self-therapy programs, and the expansion of the nutritional supplement industry are all signs of an increased desire for self-knowledge and self-fulfillment. However, greater self-knowledge does not necessarily afford the actor with the capacity to rule the external situation. On the contrary, a greater knowledge of science and medicine does not necessarily equate to a greater understanding of the self or a greater degree of control over our destiny. Such incapacity is the result of excess reflexivity, a strict environment, and the immobility of the society as a whole. Society seems protected to all changes while a permanent turn makes way to the own individual and its body. The body has become the last refuge of development. On this cultural context, there was an unprecedented growth of discourses about the body. Among other domains, the sociology of the body emerged as a separate area of study and research identifying and analyzing this turn towards the body (Cregan, 2006). However, as Mirzoeff (1995) suggested, the body became central in academic studies in such a way, that it started to be the spinning plate of the direct contact between scientific areas that were traditionally separated. From medical studies to cultural studies, from feminism to gender and gay studies, from pharmacology to dietetics, from cybernetics to art history, from the human performance study to surgery, from biophysics to dance, from cultural criticism to body imagery, all confirms that an amplification of the body is happening and this is, above all, a proliferation of discourses about the body. Our current representation of the body is the result of a multifactorial historic process. Scientific, cultural and technical conditionings have contributed to how we perceive the body. Mauss (1973) proposed the notion of body techniques to underline the social nature of body practices, a kind of body habitus which varies according to social factors as education, wealth, fashion and status. Mauss (1979) considers the modern notion of person as a resulting symbol of a particular way of personality elaboration and, as a specific model of attribution of subjectivity to individuals. That is the result of the invention of the technologies of subjectivity (Foucault, 1988) which lead the individuals to relate with themselves while subjects of their own behaviors and capacities. Both Mauss and Foucault refuse an original subjectivity, an ontological essence of each subject. The subject doesn‘t exist out of the social processes, mainly the ones of discursive order that produce them like free and autonomous beings. That is precisely the meaning of the expression technologies of subjectivity: a set of ethical techniques about itself which has in the subjectivity its own effect. The perspective of the body like a unitary being should be abandoned. Instead of speaking about an entity intrinsic to the body it is suggested that the body is the result of a specific body regime that leads a certain relation with the embodied individual and of this with the notion of body totality. In other words, the agency is itself an effect, the result of the 57
technologies of the self which invoke human beings as body reality. Thus, we need to think the historical conditions which made possible for man to build himself as an object of reflexivity. This relation of control of the self over the self, or of the knowledge of the self by the self, has been established in different ways. Confession, care, body care, self-esteem are only some of the proposed or prescribed procedures to individuals trying to give themselves an identity. In any case, the body itself is present as property of subjectivity from which life and death depends. Nowadays the body seems to be gaining in both dignity and valorization because it implies caring for its good performance. Meanwhile, medicine develops a technical-scientific complex that presents predictive medicine, based upon genetic knowledge, as the perfect health platform. Thus, the discourses about the body cannot be understood outside the progress and human perfection ideology that has been leading to the progressive medicalization of society. The literature on consumer culture examines consumption in relation to the construction of distinct lifestyles (Featherstone, 1991). The emphasis is upon the consumption of goods and services which contribute to various aspects of body maintenance and image such as diet, sport, clothes, and health clubs. Thus, the images of health are akin to body images promulgated by the cosmetic and fitness industries. Exercise and diet management becomes a response to control image and health. These messages promote the myth of moral strength and will as a way of building the contemporaneous subjectivities. Biological perfection it is the counterpoint of moral perfection. But the other side of theses perfectionist presumptions hides contradictory practices and representations: on the one hand, the compulsion to work out (vigorexia) and the refusal of nourishment (anorexia); on the other hand, the orgiastic bodies, excessive in nourishment (bulimia) and the refusal of physical exercises. The former suggest a large tolerance to body suffering and exhaustion. Eating disorders have the tendency to grow amidst a cultural environment based upon diets which frequently propose caloric restrictions (Bordo, 1993). The later refuse body normalization and suggest excess. As Turner (1996) reminds us we are again in the face of a pendulum that swings between Dionysus and Apollo. A great part of the cultural history of the western Christian civilization can be epitomized by the two extremes, orgy and fasting, that have in the Dionysian cult the expression of excess, marginality and protest of the low social groups and, in the apollonian the expression of rational control, restriction and dominion. Underlying this new healthy ideology is the free choice and personal autonomy rhetoric. On this context, we can identify two types of speech, with apparently contradictory values: a) The defense of an ascetic lifestyle, devoted to hard work, self-restraint, and discipline. Framed by a representation of a thin but muscled body, middle and upper classes strive to physically distinguish themselves as capable of clean living and obtain a healthy life. Through self-control, fitness programs and regular training, frequently with personal trainer, they try to demonstrate their own moral and physical superiority, differentiating themselves from lower class groups. b) The proliferation of practices built upon a new «prudentialism» (O‘Malley, 1992). Through sales techniques and marketing the technologies of consumption exacerbates both individual and collective anxieties concerning each one‘s future, encouraging the investment on the quality of life. The ethics of lifestyle maximization, coupled with new technologies of lifestyle management generates a ruthless imperative of selfgovernment. From this point of view, training and sportive practice are not socially neutral activities but rather ways of social regulations.
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Narcissism can be understood as a neurotic version of a new lifestyle centered on jogging, healthy diets, weight control and physical maintenance. Anorexia as an extreme version of narcissism (Turner, 1996) has, in a sport context, some interesting reflective elements. The data about the prevalence of eating disorders among athletes is well illustrative of the normative power of numerous biological signs. The American College of Sports Medicine suggest that 65% of the women who compete in ice skating, synchronized swimming and endurance sports suffer from eating disorders (ACSM, 1997), and a survey of college athletes reports that 93% of the programmes acknowledging eating disorders involved women‘s sports (Noden, 1994). The connection between food, health and physical appearance is particularly important to women, especially in a society that gives so much importance to self image. On this perspective, the social value of women is associated to her body, represented nowadays by an ideal of thinness. Being thin, or being fit, became not only a seductive and attractive image but also a symbol of self-control, moral integrity and high social status (Marzano-Parisoli, 2001). This orthodoxy tends to produce an ascetic approach to both body and sports, convincing more and more people that everyone can modify and build the body they really want. This attempt to achieve perfection and virtue through the subordination of will and ―flesh‖ is a behavior frequently found in anorectic individuals (Rosen & Hough, 1988). Similarly, some male athletes tend to use extreme methods so they can lose weight, but these behaviors are more common in sports that need a slim female body. Finally, there is a bigger and bigger evidence of compulsive behaviors in sport activities. (Young, White & McTeer, 1995).
Sporting healthism Contemporary "healthism" produces a medicalization of everyday life in such a way that two main groups of people can be identified: (1) those whose main goal is to construct and present themselves to others as healthy, and (2) those who cannot, or who refuse, to come close to the healthy ideal. In this regard, Blaxter (1993) writes that for the contemporary era, exposure to health risks has become a central marker of social class. While most will blame themselves for their health, only some enjoy a social position that allows them a viable measure of real control over their lives. The author reports that regardless of class and education, respondents notice voluntary behaviours as the cause of diseases: "my life is unhealthy because I can‘t control my weight, because I smoke; it is healthy because I take exercise, because I watch my diet" (Blaxter, 1993, p. 125). These orthodoxy tend to result in victim-blaming approaches to body images, illness and health, and promote the view that individuals, not institutions, are responsible for their health. The linkage of health, personal virtue, and self-sufficiency mystifies the structural bases of inequality. By focusing on individual lifestyle as a major determinant of health, "sporting healthism" creates the illusion that people are equally able to make free choices about their health. At the core of this new brand of health management is the socially pervasive association between health and lifestyle (Gomes, 2005b). Health promotion obscures peoples‘ differential capacities to purchase goods that involve healthy behaviors. When access to sporting goods is unequally distributed by class, the real winner of the ideology of ―healthism‖ is the educated middle class. Lifestyle and self-improvement are components of a predominantly middle-class habitus that contributes to acquiescence to the logic of inequality (Gomes, 2004). It also exemplifies the replacement of public concern with individual choice as a form of legitimate spread of disciplinary body techniques. Previously confined to disciplinary institutions such as the school in the form of physical education, contemporary individuals are encouraged to live as if they are making a project of themselves. They are encouraged to take responsibility
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of their bodies, to work on them as a health guardian, and to invest in a lifestyle that will maximize the worth of their existence to themselves. While the public educational politics of European states have depreciated physical education in the schools, the marketplace alternative goes on: increase in the number of gymnasiums as a direct result of the body consumer culture; and/or the domestication of physical activities by means of personalized machine forms of exercise. The co-option of fitness by the marketplace has displaced several physical activities, like aerobics, to the isolation of DVD‘s and videos that are used in the home. Evidence suggests that the implementation of such private projects is constitutively linked to the rise of expert languages and the media through which to spread them (Gomes, 2005a). The proliferation of new magazines, self-help packages, and exercise videos has resulted in a new alliance between professionals, claiming to provide rational answers, and individuals, seeking to shape a lifestyle in the hope of personal recovery. State bureaucracies are no longer needed to enjoy healthy exercise habits. The ethic of lifestyle has infused a private domain that long appeared resistant to the population rationale. This new relationship operates through the cultural technologies of advertising and marketing that have employed a constant and intense selfscrutiny in terms of images of the self. Contemporary self-identities are largely constituted through image construction of goods and services with varying identity values located in the spheres of culture, leisure and consumption. The plasticity demanded by the role-playing and the images of health are, however, strongly mediated by other cultural sources of self-identity which emphasize contrasting values like the danger, risk, toughness, and unhealthy products. In a medicalized society, physical activity is presented as the best way to control the body and in turn life. Bodies in control and bodies out of control become not only a physical marker, but also an ethical focus, the only way to reach self-responsibility. The attribution of social responsibility to the proactive pursuit of health has moved forward since the healthism of the early 1970s when themes of individual effort, discipline and will came together with the deregulation of public health programs. Experts have indicated how to be healthy by means of exercise and prudent behavior. The normalizing ethical power of the model is proposed by rhetoric of free choice and personal autonomy. Such thinking is typical in countries which are attempting to replace old models of regulating health (White, Young, Gillet, 1995). Instead, individuals are encouraged on the assumption that they want to be healthy and can freely choose the ways of living most likely to promote their own health. Part of this political reasoning is based on the social body metaphor, the view that social illness may be repaired by disciplinary action on the individual body.
Techniques of the self in sport context The techniques of the self are voluntary reflection practices through which individuals try to change themselves, establishing behavior rules, and modifying their unique form of being. It is a self-government device used by individuals, carried out continuously without the necessity to directly govern their own behavior. To this government mentality it is enough that there are some who feel governed and therefore act as if they ruled themselves. That demands a particular way of building new subjectivities. Body education and the search for physical shape are suitable contexts to the expression of pedagogical ways which spread a certain set of experiences of the self. This experience has in the body practices context, being that of self care, self maintenance, self recovery, self activation, self dominion or self knowledge, an especially important way of development of the contemporaneous subjectivities built upon a specific medical sensibility. Many of the physical exercise practices suggested nowadays, concern getting to the bottom of the conscience exam and to the use of registry techniques. Sports practices include 60
pedagogical devices, understood to this effect as the means which contribute to set up or transform one‘s own experience. If we take as an example the physical maintenance practices we will verify that theses include : 1) optical devices oriented to self-observation and selfvigilance on which is determined what is visible from the subject to him- or herself; 2) discursive devices oriented to establish what the subject should say about him- or herself; 3) moral devices where the ways on which a subject should judge him- or herself are given according to a rule; 4) self-regulatory devices that establish what a subject can and should do with him- or herself. 1)
Self observation: Using mirrors and technical instruments which measure cardiac frequency, caloric consumption, distance covered and exercise intensity, are examples of optical devices made for the individual to see, be seen and see him- or herself; the use of individual registry cards, where the individuals should make a certain balance of the frequency, intensity and quality of exercise is a example of the self vigilance mechanism. Centered in the autonomy of the sportsman, the evaluation and, specially, self-evaluation assumes a nuclear role in this autonomy regimen. The suggested training practices concern the use of registry techniques which make the individual to face himself. Confronting himself and of submitting to his own will is the obvious purpose of the evaluation technique.
2)
Discursive devices: The contemporaneous techniques of expression, concentration and relaxation imply a self-reflexivity and a speech of the own body. We use the notion of psy-activities as ways of aggregating very dissimilar activities which have as common point the self-knowledge techniques that are built upon a therapeutic sensibility such as bioenergy, tai chi, yoga, body expression, massages, psychophysical, anti-stress therapies, gestaltherapy, etc. We are looking at the rediscovery of the ―conscience movement‖ through the body as way of intensification and incorporation of the world in us. This body appropriation by the conscience implies learning to unveil its emotions, express intimate feelings, exposing in its primary corporeity. It is about a quest for personal truth which has in the concept of the self the articulation knot of all remaining discourses: an internally regulated construction that takes the shape of each one‘s an explicit narrative about the self.
3)
Moral devices: The present interest about the body also obeys to aesthetics, dietetics and hygienic imperatives which establish rules. Side by side with the self-control techniques, there is an instance that induces, incites or imposes. So, for example, in stress management programs ―there is the need of a frequent reflexivity about the used thought strategies”, “stimulating the sense of self-overcoming” ―accompanying the practitioner on his reflexivity about existential problems that worries him”. On this conscience exam, the relation between the subject with himself suffers a folding so that the discovery of the real self can be possible, not as much as a moral punishment relation but as appreciation of a completed work. On this device, the performing self is in front of is intimate self; the acting self is exposed to the scrutiny of the self which reflects throughout and after the action.
4)
Self-regulatory devices: Physical exercise, through the scrupulous attention that it gives to the body and through its permanent worry with optimized functionality, makes the old ascetic logic fall and reveals a new culture of the Self, in the modern version of the progressive control of the ―true‖ being. The body is available to all experimentations (the slogan Just do it from the Nike advertisement is in regard to this very significant) in 61
the quest for the means to really be itself, healthy, slim and eternally young. The authoritarian rule is replaced by the indicative rule in which each one seems to be the origin of options that would only take some practical advices, sensitization campaigns or made to measure exercises. As such, the proliferation of magazines and self-help books with advices and prescription about food, exercise, health and sex is very important. Taking care of oneself can be useful to appearance, but it has its limitations. In the future, everyone will hope to determine themselves by acting over the causes of appearance. But nowadays, these causes can only be found in the genetic and molecular projects. Genetic and neurosciences, surgery and the biophysics of new materials enlarged by far the possibilities of redesigning the body. From the psychological ―essence‖ we pass to the biological ―essence‖, and so, it seems to overcome the true obsession of decadence. Target of deep transformations, the body is a place of both dreams and nightmares, and gives signs of obsolescence as any other object of consumption.
References 1. American College of Sports Medicine The female athlete triad. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1997, n. º 29(5), pp. 1-9. ISSN 0195-9131. 2. Blaxter M. Why do the victims blame themselves, In Radley A. (ed.) Worlds of Ilness: Biographical and Cultural Perspectives on Health and Disease. London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 125-145. ISBN 978-0-415-13152-0. 3. Bordo S. Unbearable Weight. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-520-24054-4. 4. Cregan K. The Sociology of the Body. London: Sage, 2006. ISBN 9780761940241. 5. Featherstone M. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage, 1991. ISBN 9780803984158. 6. Foucault M. Technologies of the Self. In Martin L. H. – Gutman H. – Hutton P. H. (eds): Technologies of the Self. London: Tavistock, 1998, pp. 16-49. 7. Gomes R. Dilemas e Paradojas del Autogobierno del Cuerpo. Apunts, 2004, no. 78, pp. 33-40. ISSN 1577-4015. 8. Gomes R. Young Bodies Identities in Leisure. A Critical Approach. World Leisure Journal, 2005(a), vol. 47, no.3, pp. 54-60. ISSN 1607-8055. 9. Gomes R. Os Lugares do Lazer. Lisboa: IDP, 2005(b), pp. 105-121. ISBN: 972-8460-880. 10. Mauss M. Techniques of the body. Economy and Society, 1973, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 70–88. ISSN 0308-5147. 11. Mauss M. The category of the person. In Mauss M. Psychology and Sociology: Essays. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979, pp. 57-94. ISBN 0710088779. 12. Mirzoeff N. Bodyscape. Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure. London: Routledge, 1995. ISBN 978-0-415-09801-4. 13. Noden M. Dying to win. Sports Illustrated, 1994, n. º 81(6), pp. 52-60. ISSN 038-822X. 14. O‘Malley P. Risk, power and crime prevention. Economy and Society, 1992, no. 21, pp. 252-275. ISSN 0308-5147. 15. Marzano-Parisoli M. M. The contemporary construction of a perfect body image: Bodybuilding, exercise addiction, and eating disorders. Quest, 2001, no. 53, pp. 216-230. ISSN 0033-6297. 16. Rosen L. W. & Hough D. O. Pathogenic weight-control behaviors of female college gymnasts. The Physician and Sports Medicine, 1988, n. º 16(9), pp. 141-144. ISSN 00913847. 62
17. Shilling C. The Body and Social Theory (2nd ed). London: Sage, 2003. ISBN 0-76194285-8. 18. Turner B. The Body and Society (2nd ed). London: Sage, 1996. ISBN 0-8039-8809-5. 19. Turner B. Regulating Bodies (3rd ed.). London and New York: Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0415-06963-7. 20. White P., Young K. and Gillet J. Bodywork as a moral imperative: some crtical notes on health and fitness. Society and Leisure, 1995, vol. 18(1) pp. 159-182. ISSN 0705-3436. 21. White P., Young K. and McTeer W. A Sport, Masculinity and the Injured Body. In D. Sabo – Gordon D. (Eds.) Men‟ s Health and Illness: Gender, Power and the Body. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, 1995, pp. 158-182. ISBN 978-0803952751.
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THE INFLUENCE OF SPORT ACTIVITIES ONTO THE ONE'S VIEW OF HUMAN BEINGS: A phenomenological consideration of the human body Fumio Takizawa Chiba University; Japan
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to consider sport activities on which influence one's view of human beings. This consideration is supported by the human body theory from a phenomenological viewpoint. The human body is a base for leading concrete social life. Nevertheless, this important phase of the human body is made light of. Therefore, distortion has occurred in one's view of the human body and that has given a strong influence on one's view of human beings. We should get over this distortion through sport activities. The conclusion is as follows. There is a mutual influence between one's view of human beings and that of the human body. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to one's view of the human body. Person's view of the human body is produced by how his/her own body has been learned and experienced with respect to the four formation factors; feeling, behavior, scientific knowledge and influence from mass media. It is probably required to consider sport activities from these factors, if sport can contribute to character building. Sport activities are especially contained in the ―behavior‖ of four factors. It‘s factor means a practical ability. This ability is not the physical capability, but the capability of human body containing relations with others. It must be needed to educate students for the ability.
1. Introduction The purpose of this study is to consider sport activities on which influence one's view of human beings. The view is basically indispensable to the people as a matter which shows a direction to live. Many people have told that sport activities can influence it and has educational value. Especially many sport philosophers refer to the matter of sport that is useful for the character building. Because one's view of human beings is developed in the process of playing sports. But many people do not be aware that one's view of the human body is an important part of one's view of human beings. If one's view of the human body changes, one's view of human beings must be changed. This view of the human body is influenced by sport activities. In other words, how people practice sports influences on their view of the human body, and thereby it affects on one's view of human beings. This study is supported by the human body theory from a phenomenological viewpoint. The human body must be the base to live concretely in society and it includes an ability which relate to others 1). Nevertheless, the important phase of the human body is made light of, hence the superficial culture concerned with the human body is regarded as important in the present day. Therefore a distortion occurs to one's view of the human body, and it has given influences on one‘s view of human beings 2). As the result, a weakening of the existence takes place. It becomes serious problem for us. If we think about such present condition, we have to say that people must have experiencing many practical things which make their life concrete. One of these things may be sport activities. Therefore, sport activities are necessary to get over the distortion of one's view of human beings. I think that one‘s view of the human body must be able to change human beings 64
With respect to this theme, at the 2003 IAPS meeting in Cheltenham, England, it was shown as a paradigm change why the unusualness of one's view of the human body has formed in present Japan 3). Furthermore, at the 2006 IAPS meeting in Niagara Falls, Canada, it was found out that the structure of formation process about one‘s view of human body is composed by four factors; feeling, behavior, scientific knowledge, and influence from mass media 4). With these factors, a common structure was analyzed by an international comparison from a phenomenological viewpoint. These results have become the background of this presentation which will examine the relation between sport activities and one's view of human beings. The outline of this study is as follows. At first, a mutual influence between one's view of the human body and human beings is mentioned. Basically, one's view of human beings is deeply concerned with one's view of the human body. Next, the relations between sport and one's view of the human body is surveyed. In addition, the formation process of the view is argued. The view of the human body is concerned with the formation factors already mentioned above, and it is produced by experience of the own body and learning about the physical body. Under the relation between those factors and the sport activities, it is argued that we should especially respect for a practical factor on sport activities. If we focus on the practical factor in sport activities, it can be formed to remove the distortion of one's view of human beings. Through this consideration, it is emphasized that the sport activities influence on one's view of human beings. At the conclusion, I would like to mention that the education through the sport activities is necessary for students especially in the present day, because the activities make a good influence to their views of human beings. Furthermore, I will try to illustrate a concrete example of the sport activities for influencing on one's view of human beings. 2. Relation between one's view of human beings and one's view of the human body Generally speaking, Europeans historically emphasize rationality of human beings. The human body is like a tool; hence it is controlled by the rationality. In other words, the mental phase is more important than the physical one for human nature 5). This viewpoint gives the Japanese culture a great influence, and it has become the main stream as for modern Japan as well, although Japanese have had an idea of the mind-body unity. The other hand, there is a situation that outward appearance is unusually regarded as important in Japan. Namely, many Japanese are dominated by the appearance of the body in daily life. It is as if men should be robust, women should be slender, and they must be sensitive to the fashion. Therefore, money and time are spent on body processing, e.g. diet or weight training. Cosmetic surgery is a typical of this situation. In Japan, people wear topbrand goods in order to show their social status, and then the surface status may connect with the good evaluation as a human being. It is at least necessary for us to pay attention to our appearance, but many Japanese are careful with the appearance beyond the necessity for the social life. This means a contradiction to the view of human beings respecting worth of mind 6). By the way, we have to judge others from the appearance even if we respect for the inside of them so called heart. Therefore, we judge human nature not from the mere appearance, e.g. ornament of the fashion, but from the behavior or action. Furthermore, human nature is also judged based on the ability of human body. It means the ability of practical capability. This viewpoint is one's view of human beings which emphasizes the phase of the human body. This is different from seeing the human body as a tool or a vessel. Here exists the philosophical issue about one's view of the human body. Namely, what is the human body for human beings? The view of the human body has the possibility to change the one's view of human beings in modern culture which emphasizes only the outward appearance. In other 65
words, it is one's view of the human body that gives a great influence to one's view of human beings. 3. Sport and one's view of human beings As already mentioned above, some of philosophers and educators insist that sport practice is very important for human beings. For example, Weiss insists ―excellence‖ or Lenk insists ―original achievement.‖ Also, Grupe has written many books about the educational meaning of sport 7). They consider sport as practice concerned with the human body, and then they grasp sport as a bodily practice which is indispensable to the desirable human being. On this occasion, desirable sport activities are necessary, and a kind of stoic restriction is requested to the practice. Sport is not to be watched, but to be performed. Therefore, when we participate in sport activities as a pastime, or consider sports as a consumer-driven culture, we cannot acquire desirable human beings. Sport activities let us be faire, active and friendly. These characters are important for social life as a human nature; hence we acquire those through participating sport activities. Such desirable characters composes sportsperson as the image of human beings. This must be a model of one's view of human beings. It means not only being wonderful sportspersons so far but also becoming good person whoever does sports. In other words, many people think that they must be able to live in a society as a better person by getting over the various problems in sport activities. Therefore, sportsperson becomes one of the desirable models of human beings. But the assertion has not turned an eye to the importance of the human body itself. Until now, many people have unconsciously thought that the human body is a medium or a tool in order to relate to the outer world. 4. Sport activities and formation factors of one's view of the human body Even if people ask relations between their view of human beings and sport, they almost never consider the phase of their views of the human body which exists between both matters. Even though their life are changed by one‘s views of the human body, people do not think of it. But, they unconsciously hold their view of the human body in the daily life. How do yield their views of the human body? I will refer to its answer briefly, which I presented at the IAPS meeting in Canada 2006 8). There are four factors which conclude one's view of the human body; ① emotional understanding by real feeling while we practice, ②socially active understanding which is requested while we participate in ceremonies or events, ③rational scientific understanding by the learning at school, and ④the images transmitted by the mass media. These understandings are never integrated each other, because each understanding has different logic of thinking. We choose one of those views properly depending on each situations. We are unconscious of this choice. When we participate in sports activities, we are influenced by all these factors. For example, if the human body is analyzed by ③scientific factor, the human body is treated as a object. However, a feeling of fulfillment or personal pain based on ①emotional factor surpass the scientific explanation. Moreover, ④the image transmitted by mass media becomes a standard for the external beauty and drives a worry to the health. Therefore, people purchase health products. Furthermore, athletes are merchandised by mass media. How much the contract money has been paid, or who will get a gold medal etc.. Those images give us a disagreeable influence related to sports activities. In order to weaken these influences, we need the sport activities which are focused on ①the emotional factor as an actual feeling, and ②the social factor concerned with the behavior. If we take notice of this ①and ②as the practical factor, it will be understood that the sport practice give a concrete influence to one's view of the human body. 66
5. Sport activities seen from the practical factor In order to consider about what is human beings, we should feel our body with endurance or pain and should gaze at the human body itself which extends the possibility of the daily life, rather than think the abstract body 9). With this respect, what kind of things can we find in sports activities? I really feel embodied me when I cannot perform intentionally in sport activities. In order to get over the problem and to enjoy sports more, I repeat the exercise of necessary skills with standing pain, and then I can move more freely. This story has already been told. But, at the same time, I develop another ability which is not confined to the learning of sport techniques in the practice. That is to say the ability of bodily relation to the other. We need the ability of the human body which can generate concrete relations to the outer world. The human body is not a medium, but a function which embodies me. In order to enrich the ability of relation, I have to correlate with something. The capability makes one‘s relation effective and rich. It means the ability of the human body. Here is an educational possibility of the human body itself 10). The practical ability in sports is not mere individual skill, but it is the ability in the relations with the other or tools. I cannot relate concretely, until ―my‖ human body has the ability of connection to the other. Therefore it is not same as the human relation which relates to the other using words or her/his body as a tool. In general thinking, the human body is a tool, hence it is only controlled by the mind. But as has already mentioned, it is not a tool, but it is me. I exist certainly there as the human body. If I do not practice actually, I cannot realize this ability 11). Hence one's view of the human body keeps changing by sport experience. This change is as like the fact that a person who experiences heavy ill become very kind to the other person. If sport activities can be planned under this idea, it becomes possible to educate students for a better view of the human body. In short, not only in the assertion that heart is important no matter what appearance, but also the assertion that only outer appearance is important, both views do not grasp what the human body is. 6. Influence on one's view of human beings by sport activities Sport activities are connected with the better one's view of human beings, because those activities actualize one's view of the human body. It gives a great influence on one's view of human beings. Therefore, it is possible to say that the sport activities condition one's view of human beings. The point which this study is focused on is as follows. Namely, the human body itself has educational possibility. If the body is changed by education, the possibility of relation to the other comes to expand. By this spread relation to the other let one's view of the human body change. In short, one‘s own bodily experience changes the way of thinking. This process of changing becomes possible not only by the feeling of being able to do something, but also by expansion of the concrete relation to the other. The sport practice is very important to educate such view of the human body. Basically, sport practice cannot be performed without keeping the rule, handling a tool and cooperating with others. Those practices are realized by their own human body. In other words, mental learning without bodily learning does not let us work on the outer world and cooperate with the other concretely. The human body is continuously educated to a better condition unconsciously. Hence, only by intentional plan of sport activities, students can really feel what kind of function the human body has, how it keeps changing, then their life come to change. Students change their view of the human body according to their actual feeling. If one‘s own view of the human body come to change, relations with others and viewpoint of others must be
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changed. In a word, sport practice gives students a great influence on what the human being is. Therefore the idea of sport activities as education for one's view of human beings is an indispensable viewpoint in the present day. For example, how to answer the doping problems will be different by what viewpoint about human beings we have. Hence, it becomes our theme that we make a plan in order to change student's view of the human body. A solution of this theme also means our effort getting over the subtlety of human beings. 7. Better sport activities Various acts has pursued in relating with the sport culture in modern society. Those acts are, for example, to enjoy sport as a fashion, to bet on sport and to treat sport as the economic activities. Also, there are many sport activities for the honor, which is attended by great sacrifice of own life. In the occasion, we take a neutral position represented by the Olympism. But Sport includes a phase used for the economy or the politics. Therefore, the educational viewpoint has been necessary to promote desirable sport activities. However, the viewpoint has lacked the idea about the education for one's view of the human body which realizes sport activities. Hence, we should educate students for one's view of the human body by sport practice. In this case, we should seek what the sport activities is, on which influence one's view of human beings. Important points are how we grasp sport practice by educational viewpoint and what kind of activities we prepare. The following idea is my practical example. These contents were tried in the first term of this year 2007. The title of this course is "the human body and human movement," subtitled ―communication.‖ The goal was "let's know the unconscious communication by the human body, and then become able to do a bodily dialog." One period is ninety minutes, 15 times. At first time, it was an orientation of the course. Students know what they try to think by their own human body and to acquire bodily communication ability through practices. The second time, they try to check other's body each other in order to notice own physical body. In the third and fourth, they practiced about the bodily distance and the bodily time. In addition to this, they confirm individual territory in order to notice the function of the human body. The fifth and sixth, they practice to touch something, to hear something and to send voice under the theme of "thinking with the human body." The seventh, eighth and ninth, as communication with the gravity, they acquire some kind of movements. Those are rolling, spring, supporting and crawling. The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, under the theme "communication with materials," they practice wall climbing, treating tools (boll or bar), then treating ball with tool. In the thirteenth and fourteenth, as theme "communication with the other person," they acquire activities which are done by two persons connected both hands or with many persons together. These movements include stunts. The fifteenth is the last time. They are evaluated with three tests; blind distinction of persons by handshake, sitting down and standing up with a pair and handstand. Furthermore they hand in a report of this course. This course must be places as the fundamental class of normal sport courses. I think that we should add a different meaning to sport practices in this manner. 8. Conclusion In this paper, the possibility of transfiguration about one's view of human beings has investigated by examining sport activities. Personal relation in daily life become possible by getting the capability of the human body, which is necessary for the concrete relations. The human body is the base in our living, and it is not limited to the health issue. Moreover, such human body itself is prepared with educational possibility. We should plan the course of sports intentionally, which makes students to realize the human body function. It is the course 68
that they acquire their own view of the human body as real feeling, not from the scientific view or the image, but through the practice. The view influences one's view of human beings as a result. We must teach sports, not only as a pastime or training of the spiritual strength, but also as education for one's view of the human body itself which supports our daily life. In order to contribute to the education for one's view of human beings, we have to grasp the sport activities especially from the practical factor of formation process.
Notes and Bibliography 1) See, for example, Husserl, E.(1977), trans. by Hamaoka S.(2001), Cartesianische Meditationen: Eine Einleitung in die Phänomenologie, Iwanami Syoten, Tokyo, Takizawa, F.(1995), Logic of the Human Body, Fumaido Syuppan. Tokyo and Takizawa, F.(1999), "A Phenomenological Consideration on Necessity of Human Body for Living Ability: Practice as making relation", Bulletin of the Thought in Sport and Physical Education 5, 195-219, Tokyo. 2) See, in particular, Takizawa, F.(2005), "Forming Process of one's view of the Human Body (part 1): Formation factors of one's view of the Human Body and questionnaires about these factors", Japan Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education 27/1, 61-73 3) The title was "A paradigm change of one's view of the human body in Japan: Analysis based on a phenomenological viewpoint" 4) The title was "A Phenomenological Analysis of the Formation Process about One's View of the Human Body: Based on an international comparison amongst English, German and Japanese" 5) See, for example, Henry, M.(1965), trans. by Naka, T.(2000)， Philosophie et phenomenologie du corps: Essai sur l‘ontologie biranienne， Houseidaigaku Syuppan, Tokyo. 6) See "Takizawa, F.(2006), The Present State of One's View of the Human Body in Japan: Analysis based on a phenomenological viewpoint", Japan Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education 28/1, 39-49. And Takizawa, F., Tanaka, I., Takahashi, K.(2007), "Formation Process of One's View of the Human Body through a Comparison between Japan , Germany and England", Japan Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education 29/1, 29-45 7) Refer to the below. Arnold, P.J. (1988), Education, Movement and the Curriculum, The Falmer Press, London. Gruppe, O. (1984), Grunlagen der Sportpaedagogik 3.Auflage, Verlag Karl Hofmann, Schorndorf. Gruppe, O. (2000), Vom Sinn des Sports, Verlag Karl Hofmann, Schorndorf. Lenk, H. (2006), tarns. by Hata T. & Sekine M., "An anthropology of the Olympic athlete: towards a modernized philosophy of the Olympic games and athletes", Japan Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education, 28/2, 119-134. Weiss, P. (1969), Sport: A philosophic inquiry, Southern Illinois University Press 8) The paper read at the 2006 IAPS was included in "Takizawa, F.(2007), Forming Process of One's view of the Human Body: International comparison based on phenomenological analysis, Report of the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of JSPS (Basic Study (C) 20042006 : 16500376), Tokyo." 9) See, in particular, Takizawa, F.(2004), "Phenomenological reconsideration about the view on mind-body oneness: necessity for children to learn one's view of the human body", Japan J. Phys. Educ. Hlth. Sport Sci. 49/2. 147-158. Tokyo. 10) See, in particular, Takizawa, F.(2002), "A Philosophical consideration about the body culture physical education should take on: Focus on behavioral actions", Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education 24/2, 17-25, Tokyo. 11) Refer to the below. Ryle,G.(1949), trans. by Sakamoto H. et al.(1987), The Concept of Mind, Misuzu Syobou, Tokyo. Johnson, M.(1987), The Body in the Mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason, the University of Chicago Press, London. Ramachandran, 69
V.S. & Blakeslee, S.(1998), trans. by Tamashita, A.(1999), Phantoms in the Brain Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, Kadokawa Syoten, Tokyo. Takizawa, F.(1996), "Wise Body as a New Conception", Proceedings of the 2nd Tsukuba International Workshop on Sport Education, Tsukuba university, 105-111. Takizawa, F.(1989), "Originality of Thinking in Human-Movement", Research Journal of Education methods 15, 125-133, Tokyo. Takizawa, F.(1998), "On being wise of body as a practical ability: A phenomenological consideration of the human body", Japan Journal of Health, Physical Education and Recreation 43/2, 79-90, Tokyo.
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “REGARD” AND HUMAN MOVEMENT IN SPORTS: A CONSIDERATION FROM THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT Koji Takahashi The United Graduate School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, JAPAN
I． Introduction The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationship between ―regard‖ and human movement in sports from the phenomenological viewpoint and to show the originality of ―regard‖ in sports. For this purpose, this paper consists of the following sections. First, the close relationship between ―regard‖ and human body is clarified by the consideration from the phenomenological viewpoint. Second, how ―regard‖ exists in sports situation is considered with human movement. Finally, the originality of ―regard‖ in sports is showed and the necessity of bringing up ―regard‖ for learners is proposed. I would like to start to explain my motive for this consideration. My motive is concerned with the following question. It is how I grasp other‘s movement and correspond to them. This question means how objects appear to the subject ―I‖. For example, many people have listened to the following instructions; that is, ―look at the ball‖ or ―observe the partner.‖ These instructions may need for learners to achieve their goals. One of these goals, for example, is to treat the ball well, or correspond to the partner well. However, these instructions may not have clear meanings for the learners. If they listen to these instructions and they attend to these objects, they may not always achieve purposes which teachers intend. In such cases, people who receive these instructions will have to practice through a trial and error process as they don‘t fully understand their intention. Therefore, how do they correspond to these situations finally in practice? In order to answer this question, my consideration sets up ―regard.‖ II． The close relationship between “regard” and human body What do we understand by the consideration of ―regard‖ from the phenomenological viewpoint? Why is it functional? We can confirm them by understanding the way of Husserl‘s phenomenological consideration and by contrasting with the purpose of my consideration. Besides, I would like to clarify the relationship between ―regard‖ and human body on the basis of Merleau-Ponty‘s consideration of ―regard.‖ Meanwhile, Husserl mentions that ―…The beginning phenomenologist is bound involuntarily by the circumstance that he takes himself as the ego, then as generically an ego, who already has (in conscious fashion) a world‖ (1: p. 76). Not to be bound by this circumstance, I would like to consider ―regard‖ by following Husserl‘s analysis faithfully. Therefore, this paper will be considered from the side of the subject ―I‖. This ―I‖ does not mean author‘s own. Husserl considers three steps of the phenomenological consideration in the work ‗The Idea of phenomenology.‘ We should be careful in here, these steps are not step by step, but rather the first step bases on the second and third steps. Therefore, the consideration on the first step is the direct consideration of clarifying these questions from the phenomenological consideration. The first step is that ―…if the theory of knowledge is to concern itself with the possibility of cognition it must have cognitions of the possibilities of cognition which, as such, are beyond question; indeed, cognitions in the fullest sense, cognitions about which absolutely no doubt of their having reached their objects is possible‖ (3: p. 2). The 71
―phenomenological reduction‖ is necessary work to have such cognitions. He says that ―…This (phenomenological reduction) means: everything transcendent (that which is not given to me immanently) is to be assigned the index zero, i.e., its existence, its validity is not to be assumed as such, except at most as the phenomenon of a claim to validity‖ (3: p. 4). Therefore, by the phenomenological reduction, I can consider ―regard‖ as the following steps. 1) What constructs my ―regard‖? 2) How do I present ―regard‖ to objects? 3) How does my ―regard‖ accord with the presence of the objects? By answering these questions I can conduct the basis of ―regard‖. Now, here is one problem that these questions should not be finished only as personal matters. On the second step of the phenomenological consideration, ―…It (phenomenological reduction) means not the exclusion of the genuinely transcendent (perhaps even in some psychologico-empirical sense), but the exclusion of the transcendent as such as something to be accepted as existent, i.e., everything that is not evident givenness in its true sense, that is absolutely given to pure ―seeing‖‖ (3: p. 7). So, we can grasp again as clear acts for everyone by the phenomenological reduction. ―Regard‖ is generally related to ―looking.‖ Especially, this ―regard‖ often expresses someone‘s feeling. Commonly, ―regard‖ means ―gaze at steadily in a particular way‖ or ―pay attention to; heed‖. For example, ―professor Ryker regarded him with a faint smile.‖(7). Therefore, it is necessary to exclude contents of these personal feelings by the phenomenological reduction. Then, here is another problem about the range of ―problem of giveness‖ on third step of phenomenological consideration. In this step, ―…We thus have two absolute data, the givenness of the appearing and the givenness of the object‖ (3: p. 9). About these givenness, Husserl mentions that ―…it is absolutely clear and certain that I am perceiving this or that, and as far as the judgment is concerned that I am judging of this or that, etc‖ (3: p. 23). Therefore, ―regard‖ in this step is absolutely clear and certain that I am regarding this or that. Briefly, it is certainly that ―regard‖ is my own act and always presented to objects. Besides, the way of my ―regard‖ for the objects can be also converted by my purpose or my knowledge. On the basis of these certainties, three questions which are drawn on the first step from the phenomenological consideration can be clarified. Well, what constructs my ―regard?‖ For example, Merleau-Ponty mentions the relationship among ―regard,‖ the body and human movement. He says that ―...My moving body makes a difference in the visible world, being a part of it; that is why I can steer it through the visible. Moreover, it is also true that vision is attached to movement. We see only what we look at‖ (5: p. 124). We can understand his indication of ―regard‖ as follows. 1) I can look my body with my eyes. It means that I can objectify my own body. Furthermore, I can move as ―the body.‖ 2) My vision cannot apart from my body because my vision always serves as the ability of my body. 3) The objects which my ―regard‖ perceives will be differed by the way of my practice. Thus, ―regard‖ could not be considered without the concept of ―the body.‖ Merleau-Ponty mentions that ―it (the body) is the origin of the rest, expressive movement itself, that which causes them to begin to exist as things, under our hands and eyes‖ (6: p. 146). That is, my body with own movement gives me some meanings. I can notably insist on this concept in sports situation. Because I practice my movements meaningly in sports and I can be aware of my body. That is, ―regard‖ in sports is very much influenced by human movement and the body. Additionally, I can create my movements adequately if I can grasp these things in movement practice. Besides, this body does not mean ―the objected body‖, but it means ―the lived body‖. I ―lived body― create movements. III． How does “regard” exist in sports?
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How do I present my ―regard‖ to objects in sports situation and how does ―regard‖ relate to human movement? I would like to consider by using the following example. The situation is that now, I and my partner are playing tennis. I am left-handed. My partner is right-handed. When I am waiting for a ball, I am staying just at the front of my partner. After the partner returned the ball, I‘m going to return the ball by turning my body toward the side of my racket. The way of returning is that I return the ball toward the right side of the partner. At this moment, my ―regard‖ presents to the partner‘s body. This ―regard‖ is limited by the movement which I return the ball toward the right side of the partner. The related matters are, for example, adjustment to hitting a ball, spring of a ball or stringing, and directions or angles of my racket when I return a ball. Besides, my ―regard‖ is also limited by the purpose that I and my partner practice the fore hand stroke. My ―regard‖ presents to my partner‘s body which consists of my movements. Especially, I can convert my grasp as objects of partner‘s body into ―the body with possibility‖ by my ―regard.‖ In addition, the cycle of matters occurs in movement practice. At this time, I don‘t present ―regard‖ vaguely to the object. ―Regard‖ always presents to the specific object which gives me essential contents. Husserl also refers that ―…we characterize as a free turning of ―regard‖ ――not precisely nor merely of the physical, but rather of the ―mental regard‖ (―geistigen Blickes‖) ――from the sheet of paper regarded at first, to the objects appearing, therefore intended to ―implicitly‖ before the turning of the regard but which become explicitly intended to (either ―attentively‖ perceived or ―incidentally heeded‖) after the regard is turned to them‖ (2: p. 71). Therefore, I can convert my ―regard‖ to the objects which give essential contents to me. Here, I would like to explain one example. This is the example that I feel some discomforts when I ―left-handed― play the fore hand stroke with ―left-handed‖ partner. These discomforts are the following things. One of these is the direction when I return the ball. Another is the direction of the ball coming from my backside. Briefly, we can understand these discomforts as follows: my ―regard‖ presents to partner‘s body. His/her body is ―lefthanded body.‖ I have discomforts because I have get used to practice the fore hand stroke with ―right-handed‖ partner. But, these discomforts have the chance to convert my ―regard.‖ That is, my ―regard‖ can convert the partner‘s body which has characteristic ―right- or left-handed.‖ As I have ever considered, the originality of ―regard‖ in movement practice with the partner is understood that I present my ―regard‖ as the possibility to grasp the partner‘s movements and, at the same time, to create my movements as well. In sports situation, this ―regard‖ bases on the body with my possibility. Besides, Levinas says that ―we may let our sight wander around these horizons, illuminating certain aspects of them and letting others fall into darkness‖ (4: p. 20). Briefly, as I have already mentioned, I can highlight ―the difference of handedness‖ by converting my ―regard‖ and then withdraw ―my discomfort.‖ This means that I can grasp partner‘s body as the body with possibility by converting ―regard.‖ The ground of converting ―regard‖ is ―intersubjectivity‖ of I and the other. Accordingly, my ―regard‖ in sports can be more intentional than the ―regard‖ in ordinary life. It is because not only what I grasping objects but I meaningly what I create my movements with corresponding to partners by ―regard.‖ Besides, as I have already mentioned, my ―regard‖ bases on the body with possibility. I can present my ―regard‖ to partner‘s body and create my movements because I can be aware of the body with possibility. For example, if I can be aware of the body with possibility that I can return the ball above my partner, I can convert my ―regard‖ not only to the space of right or left side but also to the space above the partner. I can use more methods to return the ball to my partner by this converting ―regard.‖ This possibility is not numerical one but it is the possibility which is able to grasp objects and correspond to partners concretely. 73
Finally, I would like to insist on the bringing up ―regard‖ by movement practice. Learners can develop the body with possibility by bringing up their possibility of ―regard.‖ For example, if their ―regard‖ can only present to one thing, teachers can convert learner‘s ―regard‖ for alternative one. It is especially possible to movement learning. To illustrate, if teachers can understand learner‘s ―regard‖ which is only presented to the ball, they can instruct learners on their ―regard,‖ not only to except for the ball. Besides, if learners can be aware of stereotype of own ―regard,‖ they can grasp the order that is ―look at the ball‖ as ―look at the ball, not at the partner.‖ This ―regard‖ can be made use of understanding about others‘ practice or their own practice. The possibility of understanding is improved by movement practice. Thus, ―regard‖ in sports should be paid attention into movement practice and dealt with this ―regard‖ in P.E. IV． Conclusion In this paper, the relationship between ―regard‖ and human movement in sports was considered from the phenomenological viewpoint. The motive of this consideration was to answer the question that how objects appear to the subject ―I.‖ As the result, the following things were clarified. First, ―regard‖ is always presented to objects. Second, ―regard‖ is own act of the subject ―I‖. Third, the way of ―regard‖ for the objects converts by own purpose or knowledge. Forth, ―regard‖ bases on ―the body.‖ Besides, the following things were clarified from the consideration of ―regard‖ in sports. First, ―regard‖ in sports relates with which is not only grasping objects but also corresponding to the partner and creating own movements. Second, I can create my movements because I can be aware of the body with possibility by converting ―regard.‖ Third, this possibility is not numerical but is able to correspond to partners concretely. Forth, we can bring up this possibility by movement learning. The ―regard‖ plays roles of grasping objects and achieving purposes. In addition, we can grasp partner‘s body with possibility by converting ―regard.‖ We should pay attention to ―regard‖ in movement practice and deal with ―regard‖ in P.E. References 1. Husserl, E. Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology. Translated by Cairns, D. Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht / Boston / London, 1965. 2. Husserl, E. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy First Book. Translated by Kersten, F. Edmund Husserl Collected Works Volume II. Martius Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague/ Boston/ London, 1982. 3. Husserl, E. The Idea of Phenomenology. Translated by Alston, W. P. and Nakhnikian, G. Introduction by Nakhnikian, G. Fifth impression. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague, 1973. 4. Levinas, E. The Theory of Intuition in Husserl‘s Phenomenology. Translated by Orianne, A. 2nd ed. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1995. 5. Merleau-Ponty, M. Eye and Mind. The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Philosophy and Painting. Edited and with an Introduction by Johnson, G. A. Smith, M., Translation Editor. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1993. 6. Merleau-Ponty, M. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated from the French by Smith, C. Routledge & K. Paul, 1962. 7. Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 2003.
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MISGIVINGS REGARDING THE RESERVED BODY SEEN AMONG THE JAPANESE YOUTHS Hideaki Onuki Surugadai University, Saitama, Japan
Introduction Almost all countries on this globe inevitably embrace uniquely individual problems. The contents of the problems are of course diverse; some of them might halt the function of government, some others might even push people to protest nation-wide. On the other hand, we also recognize the existence of the matters, easily or some times intentionally, to put off, not to deal with seriously. I here, on this opportunity, wish to pick up one out of the latter case mentioned above, and to call people‘s attention to a serious problem-to-be within that, which is uniquely concerning Japan, the Japanese and P.E. in Japan. If I elaborate the point further, I would like to introduce what I observe and how I feel about the present youths in Japan, especially focusing on their day-to-day movement behavior. I surmise that the root for the behavior seems to be stemmed mainly from their school lives, and I even extend my hypothesis to the P.E. in particular, which has been a sort of vulnerable and fragile situation and is now in the midst of reconsolidating its raison d‘être as a school subject. Further, if the Japanese are aware of the fact related to the dynamic trend in population, we Japanese unavoidably realize what we have to pay our attention on throughout this 21st century. The bodies of the Japanese youths, the state of school education in Japan, and also the state of P.E. in schools in Japan are the targets to tackle on and examine to verify what I would like to propose. So, let me try to link them and bring out the crux of the issue and possible ‗solutions-to-be‘ for that, from the standpoint of myself who is engaged in the fields of movement and dance, while expecting this may turn out to be a reply to Zeigler, E.F. who encourages the educationists and educators engaging in P.E. saying how enormous opportunities and possibilities P.E. of the 21st century has.1 Before moving on to the main subject I had better touch on a term I employ in this paper, that is the term ‗youth‘; I use the term as a comprehensive one and hope those who read this short article may not be confused. What conjures up the feeling of the misgivings regarding the body of Japanese youths today? Whether you like it or not, the term globalization is a sort of hot staff at the moment. I do not intend to examine the definition of the term in a strict as well as realistic sense here, yet wish to admit that most countries are under the influence of what the term implies somehow. That means people of most countries are inevitably on the same boat, which is built and provided by a big powerful country; I do not want to mention the exact name of it but I bet everyone can guess it quite easily. Politics by power, economy based on the neo-liberalism, and society based on the achievement-oriented, those tendencies permeate Japan today. But the things are, I should say, not moving better direction. Economy has been recessing and politics has never been stable these days. Actually, just recently the Japanese Prime Minister resigned out of blue after the period of the state of lame duck. However, what I really wish to insist on here is to realize what has happened in school education in Japan under the circumstance today.
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School is used to be unquestioning/mandatory entity for most Japanese but it has become an entity to be relativized. It means school has become just one of choices before stepping in to the society. Also it is said to be this consequence is a result of an undesirable influence of highly developed consumer-driven society of which allows one to insist consciousness of right. Attending school unfortunately has become a mere means for quite a few students today. So, we must at the same time accept the fact why students leave their schools without deep consideration and some of them turn to be school refusals without certain reasons. Number of school refusals among K-12 has reached over 200,000 and the numbers of college dropouts are, at present, up to 60,000 in 2006 only. On top of that it is reported that there are approx.1 million of nowhere kids or youths who are stop-at-home. School has somehow become the place where one does not feel comfortable at least for some of the youngsters and youths. And the significance and value attached to school has been drastically changing among them. It can be thought these are due to, say, hardship related to friendship, bullying of various kinds, yet what are the most convincing reasons can be thought to be is that they eager to escape from being taught from learning, and from ignoring to become acquainted with others, school peers in particular. It is often said that the tendency outlined above could be the outcome of developed urbanization and growing anonymous society, in which people would face the hardship to know each other and build up relationship. This kind of change is said to be the first experience, at least, for most Japanese. The drawings here, one by Yoshitomo Nara and the other by Tetsuya Ishida, are quite popular among the present Japanese youths since the drawings are thought to represent the feelings of and attitude towards the society surrounded them which contain cynicism and the state of distress of Japanese youths in general.
work by Yoshitomo Nara
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work by Tetsuya Ishida
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The present youths can also be observed as the mass that prefer anything amateurish and life-size staff to themselves. Let me allow taking an example which is close to the field I am engaged in, that is dance. Popular dance companies among the youths are, most of them, based on the performance excluding technique, craft, and of course virtuoso attached to the form they perform. The youths incline to refuse anything very professional, trained or educated, which are mostly outcomes of education practiced and developed in the place called schools. 76
Under the circumstances I described above, what I worry the most as to the youths in Japan is not the declination of their incentive to learn or scholastic ability, but the fact they are definitely losing to know their own bodies through being acquainting with their peers in the context of education performed in the place called schools. In the course of that they learn the bodies of others which are alien to themselves. That gives me feeling of misgivings towards them, Horrible incidents, such as stabbing, hitting, slapping, punching others leading to serious conditions happened here and there, cannot be denied to relates to the fact that the youths do not have chance to learn the bodies of both him/herself and others. In addition to that, the body has even become nuisance for some of them, so there are guys who twiddle wrist stitched up with zipper 4 with it such as heavy piercing and some other forms of modifying the body. For some of the youths, it seems that they have difficulties to keep their bodies as a tool to socialize among others because they are not sure how to cope with their bodies as a tool to associate with others. The body that are constraint, keep certain distance, and cannot be aware of the body of others, cannot relate to others, overall, the body cannot accept others; that state of the body is what I call the reserved body. The reserved body and the expectation towards P.E. What the photo (on the right, taken by the author) shows is that how to give back changes to customers, the youths work such as convenience stores as a part time are taught as basic manner. Numbers of young workers in fact seem not to be comfortable to keep their hands close to the hand of others. That is the reason behind the hand movement shown in the photo, giving back the change to the customers in close distance between hands with full of attention and care. It seems to be sound ironical when we find that the theme of latest issue of Japanese White Paper on the National Life (2007), which is ―Be aware of the relationship with others which brings affluent life‖. It is no wonder why the P.E. is expected to contribute something in this circumstance. Yet, as is often the case with P.E. in all over the world, P.E. in Japan is also, to be honest, a bit vulnerable or fragile condition as a school subject at present. It has kept wavering to search for the principle and solid objectives for the subject and it is still under consideration. So, let leave the tough discussion on the principle of the subject for a moment and think about much more practical side of the subject such as methodology attached to it, or, say, realistic development of the subject. P.E. in the US and UK are reported that the subject practiced both sides of the Atlantic are focusing on the prevention of overweight, obesity, and the lack of physical activities among the people.5 And that tactics have been supported widely, that have therefore been successful because it can be thought that it gives realistic feelings and sense of necessity to majority of people there. So, let me try to propose a reality can be found in P.E. in Japan. An Urgent task of the 21st Century Japan and an alternative to raison d‟être of P.E. 77
This following chart indicates the population pyramid in Japan surveyed by National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, comparing the years of both 2005 and 2055. The population of Japan has started to decline since 2006, and about 50 years from now on roughly 40% of the population will be over 65- year-old. It is the arrival of the society of the falling birthrate and the aging population. The Japanese ought to understand we will face the necessity to care others and, conversely, we accept physically as well as mentally someone who would care us someday. There will be unavoidably realistic world coming up before us Japanese. And care for the elderly is no longer ‗shadow work‘ carried out only by (female) spouse or paid care-workers but for anyone. It will have definitely become sociallysituated matter for majority of Japanese in the near future. Here comes the hardship. It is not hard to imagine that the reserved body, I have pointed out already, will have difficulty to or won‘t be able to care others nor be cared by others because of lack of the experience to share the space with others and assimilate with others
through bodily movement; further, one who has the reserved body may not be able to accept the bodies alien to him/herself. The P.E. must do something here to prevent for the situation to come up. School is definitely a key environment where one may be able to get acquainted with others, and the P.E. should be the center of the enterprise. However, it is true to say that there are kids and students who do not like P.E. and physical activities since movement quite often reveals who they are. So, the point should be said to be how teachers can give them reality attached to their future lives and make them realize the impropriety attached to the reserved body. Kinesphere: the key concept to be explored I here then would like to propose a potential procedure to be taken, which I am convinced that the youngsters and youths in Japan should better be encouraged to experience. There is a notion called ‗kinesphere‘ that was introduced by Rudolf von Laban, who has been called father of modern 78
dance and has left variety of theories related to dance. He distinguishes the space in general, the infinite space, from the reach space immediately around the body; that is kinesphere. He coined the term from Greek Kinesis that means movement, and Spharia that means ball, sphere, according to the rotatory nature of the movement of our joints.7 The term kinesphere is sometimes called personal space, yet we should be careful not to mix up with the notion introduced by American social psychologist Edward Hall (1966) with the same term, which contains broader concept based on territorial behavior in animal behavior or ethology. Space embodied through movement of the body can be thought to be the reflections of inner self, though it will not easily be verbalized. Therefore, exploring the space with variables, such as stimuli for the development of movement, could make inner self ‗rich‘ in terms of variations and capacity. Then, knowing and become familiar with own kinesphere through series of exercises, such as shrinking, enlarging, sharing it with others, invading or to be invaded by others, one may be able to obtain free and generous body-in-mind as well as mind-in-body. It is then quite conceivable that human-relation supported with rapport will begin to grow through exploring the exercises. And this is the thing what the 21st Japan and Japanese need for the reason mentioned above. The photo, right, shows a fragment of the basic exercise practiced as a part in usual P.E. class, or independently. exercise for overlapping kinespheres 8 explored in P.E. class as a warm-up
Concluding remarks When we Japanese think about this 21st century, disparities among regions, wealth, and schools, to name just a few, are matters to be debated earnestly. But, what we should consider most at present is the disparity of capability of the body as we will experience the society in which we must help, both mentally and physically, each other more than any other countries. The youths today must realize that they have to be ready for the time to come. The reserved body, which is observed widely among the present youths in Japan and if they keep the state of the body as it is, what consequence would bring about is not too hard to imagine. An urgent task for the 21st century Japan and Japanese, nation and people that will face up the society of the falling birthrate and the aging population before long, must surely be taken seriously and the school education must step forward to tackle on it. P.E., without doubt, would better take the initiative. Raison d‘être of the subject should definitely be brought out from the deed; further, P.E. in Japan can even declare that cultivating the potential of the body, say, drawing out generous/open phase of the body surpassing the reserved, through variety of exercises based student training at a senior living center
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on and adopted the notion of kinesphere 10 as
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de facto standard, not merely a risk hedge or a shot in arm for relieving the present state of the subject. It might not be dreamy to say that a clue for the restoration of education and schools for Japanese lies ahead.
Notes 1. Zeigler, E.F. Physical Culture down through the Ages: Now the 21st Century Looms before Us. The Physical Educator, Late Winter 2003 pp.2-4 2. Nara, Y. Slash with a Knife. Tokyo, Foil, 2005 p.6 3. Ishida, T. Person who has become not to fly anymore in Tetsuya Ishida‘s Posthumous Works. Tokyo, Kyuryudo Publishing‘s, 2005 p.5 4. The photographer is unknown 5. Gately, P. Child Obesity: The scale of the problem and what can we do? Physical Education Matters, Summer 2007 pp.10-13 6. NAPSE Symposium. Combating Obesity in K-12 Learners JOPERD, Oct.2007, Vol.78 No.8 pp.25-53 7. National Institute of Population and Social Security Research Japan (2005) www.ipss.go.jp 8. Maletic, Vera. Body-Space-Expression –The Development of Rudolf Laban‘s Movement and Dance Concepts. Berlin・ New York, Mouton de Gruyter 1987, p.59 9. The photograph taken by the author. 10. The photograph taken by the author. 11. Onuki, H. Acquisition of an alternative knowledge in P.E. Journal of Physical Education for women, October 2005, Vol.47 No.10 pp.10-13
References: 1. Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York, Harper & Row, 1971 2. Hall, E.T. The Hidden Dimension. New York, Doublerday, 1966 3. Bartenieff, I. & Lewis, D. Body Movement: Coping with the Environment. New York, Gordon and Breach, 1981
This article is based on the script for the 20 min. oral (paper) presentation at 35th Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, held on 19th-22nd September 2007, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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SPIRITUALITY AND MEANING IN SPORT
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THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE: PHILOSOPHICAL (SELF-)REFLECTIONS ON SPORT AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza Department of Philosophy, Linfield College
I. Forecast: introductory matters ―Know thyself‖ commands the Delphic oracle. The pithy arrogance and bravado of the injunction suggest that, should we fail to oblige, nefarious consequences are sure to follow ignorance into our epistemic inner sanctum. Socrates, ever mindful of his philosophic duties, encourages us to examine our lives or cash them in as worthless. Presently, I seek to fulfill my intellectual obligations concerning this charge by following the Socratic pursuit within the sphere of sport. After all, sport is often touted as an arena where we may find an epistemically privileged path to assess our values, actions, and character. Because of the complex, reflexive, and dynamic nature of self-knowledge, I endorse a perspectivist understanding where conceptual analysis, phenomenology, Eastern philosophy, and existential considerations work together to challenge orthodox conceptions that reduce epistemology and rationality to purely intellectual elements. As an alternative, I advance an organic model of rationality that seeks to concurrently redefine how we view our selves: not as static mental essences, but as rational and emotionally embodied, dynamic beings focused on achievement. This expanded view of rationality and self is then used to argue that amid the turmoil of intense physical and mental activity particularly found in high-performance and risky sports lies an undisturbed center that offers unique opportunities for self-knowledge. The forecast is for some stormy conditions in the first section as certain clarifications begin to harbinger what will follow in the second definitely more turbulent section, a revision of rationality and our notion of the self. With the full might of the winds unleashed we arrive at the peaceful eye of the hurricane, where sports pursued at the limit lead us in our quest for self-knowledge. After the many meteorological and philosophical tribulations, the weather clears again with a fittingly very short conclusion.140 II. Stormy Conditions: distinctions and clarifications In preparation for what lies ahead, this section lays out a number of issues either to clarify specific uses of terms, so that our visibility may not be impaired, or to organize the pertinent theoretical methodologies and concepts in a fashion that will allow us to maneuver unencumbered when the time to face the turmoil comes. Let‘s begin by enumerating some paradigmatic examples of high-performance and risky sports: big-wave surfing, where surfers try to ride waves 30 feet and even higher that can result in serious injury; back-country skiing, which involves climbing up or being ―helidropped‖ on top of a mountain and then skiing down unbelievably steep slopes where the danger of avalanche is constant; bicycle stage racing, where contestants intensely race long 140
This paper is based on a presentation by the same title for the 35th Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, September 19 – 22, 2007 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The foregoing is preparatory groundwork for a future undertaking where the arguments and central issues presently sketched with quick and rough impressionistic strokes will be further refined into a finished portrait. During said presentation I used a number of ―testimonials,‖ reflections that showcased the process of self-revelation undergone in connection with this project. Since this will be pertinent later, I will mention that my first testimonial concerned my own lack of self-reflection with regard to my passionate pursuit of bicycle racing at a highly competitive level. A conversation with a colleague sparked the realization that I did not truly know the deeper reasons for my obsessive dedication to the two wheels.
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distances over many consecutive days (up to three weeks) over all types of challenging terrain under any weather conditions; or mountaineering in any of its fascinating and dangerous varieties.141 None of them are for the faint of heart, or at least the unprepared weekend-warrior seeking cheap thrills that emulate representations of sport ―heroes‖ by the media. Next follows a conceptual distinction between two types or levels of knowledge that I ascertain are involved in the sort of Socratic quest presently undertaken. This does not necessarily imply that there is an actual ontological difference; I esteem these to be two distinct but related processes. I have chosen to call these the ―gnoseologic insight‖ and the ―epistemic stance,‖ based on a loose but fitting use of their Greek roots. Gnosein and episteme both refer to ‗knowledge,‘ but whereas the former is associated with the revelatory and esoteric, the latter is concerned with the scientific and truth-functional.142 Below follow a few comments to the purpose. ―Gnoseologic insight‖ is exemplified by the Socratic wisdom that begins with the realization that one does not know. It may involve existential insights into one‘s life and its worth, that is, it concerns self-knowledge in the sense of what we are all about. It is ―felt‖ more than known in a propositional sense, but its most refined expressions are verbalized. A gnoseologic insight can be theoretical, ethical, aesthetic, or simply experiential in a broad sense. The epistemic stance conforms to the traditional definition of knowledge of truth as propositional knowledge. Fittingly, the Greek sense relates to science. It is discursive: ―I know that K.‖ As such it has a truth-functional component that either is validated or not. It also involves cognition of external aspects of the world we live in, and falls within the domain of cognition and reason. A clarification ensues. Whereas one can be epistemically cognizant of something, one understands intellectually what something means, one need not necessarily be aware of it in the gnoseologic sense, one may not comprehend what it means for one‘s life. For example, in the case of a tragic incident, a home burning in a fire, the owner may hear the information, ―your house burned down,‖ but it is not until she actually sees the havoc that ―reality sinks in‖ with the full implications—economic, practical, emotional and existential—for her life. Alternatively, one can be fully cognizant of the theoretical underpinnings of a specific issue, yet fail to truly embrace what this information means thus failing to act appropriately. For certain sports lowering the ratio of bodyweight to power output dramatically improves performance, however the athlete, while fully aware of the theory can still fail to follow through because the relevance is not properly appreciated. And this is not a matter of not having the right information or not understanding it, but of simply and actually not grasping it in the gnoseologic sense. In short, it is the difference between ‗the known‘ as an objective astold-to account versus ‗the known‘ as a subjective actually lived experience. However, rather than being modes of knowledge at odds with each other, they are actually complementary. Speaking of complementariness, there is a plethora of approaches when it comes to the study of the connections between self and knowledge, such as psychology, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, as well as those philosophical disciplines that focus on the workings of the mind most explicitly, namely phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind. Their invaluable findings sequentially acknowledged, whether it be in terms of the neurotic or healthy reasons we prefer certain sports or activities to others, whether it be the particular areas of the brain associated with reflected self-knowledge such as the medial prefrontal 141
The high-performance and risky activities under consideration are not strictly coterminous with the contemporary popular label of ―extreme.‖ Although they overlap to some extent, some of these high-performance and risky activities predate or are not included under the phenomenon of the extreme even if they are much riskier than emblematic extreme sports, e.g., skateboarding. Moreover, much of what I argue below can be extended to most sports (and even to other pursuits such as the arts), but these particularly demanding subset of risky and highly skilled, competitive endeavors prove to be particularly revealing for reasons not the least of which are the severity and peril that characterize them. 142 ―Episteme‖ and ―Gnosein‖ in F.E. Peters. 1968. Greek Philosophical Terms: a historical lexicon. New York New York University Press.
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cortex, or our knowing and awareness of our particular mental states, none of these suffices to account for the complexity of the phenomenon under scrutiny. But rather than being competing accounts, in fact they do complement one another. To supplement them I enlist some additional perspectives. First, wisdom in the Socratic fashion as the overarching theme that organizes the inquiry, its ethical and existential overtones being central. Another standpoint that proves revealing is the recent work at the confluence of philosophy and evolutionary anthropology, which kinesthetically expands what it means to be rational. And third, Eastern views on the body and the self, which buttress the case for a life of achievement in search of excellence and integrate harmoniously with the Socratic path. The Socratic notion is refined next. Socrates‘ devotion to the Delphic maxim of ―know yourself‖ is evident in many of his writings. Perhaps the most obvious one being the Apology, where he presents as the source of his wisdom the realization that he really did not know anything (worth knowing, we might add), and hence it was this awareness of the boundaries of his ignorance that set him on the path to wisdom. Unlike those who think they know what they do not know, Socrates states: ―[…] I am likely to be wiser… [because] I do not think that I know what I do not know‖ (21).143 Or even more indirectly, but perhaps more apropos, when Socrates greets Phaedrus, he asks: ―Whence do you hail from and where are you headed?‖(Plato, 3)144 A seemingly benign query that is concerned with deeper reasons than the youth‘s meanderings. But what is it this Socratic wisdom all about? It is a relentless quest to find out what we are not just in a purely cognitive sense, this being the level of epistemic knowledge, but a deeper and broader one, of existential and ethical overtones—the gnoseologic attitude—where we come to find out who we are as we become aware of our reasons for action. Thus, we are not only cognizant of the epistemic truths that explain our preference for mountain climbing to skiing according to a psychological or even physiological and neurological basis, but also we come to gnoseologically understand what lurks beneath this, they why we engage one over the other, feeling with the force of intuition how it comes about for us. These reasons may go as deep as we may be willing or able to go. It is a lifelong quest, something on which the winds will blow again from both Eastern and Westerly directions. The inner workings, so mysterious in this rendition, I hope to elucidate to some extent in the subsequent pages. Finally, before we face the gathering storm, a very brief foray into the Eastern counterpart to Socratic wisdom. Eastern philosophy and its goal-less aim of enlightenment— and within it Zen Buddhism and its quest for satori—brings a methodological tool instrumentally applicable to this piece. There is a famous set of pictures called the Ten OxHerding Pictures, which are meant as an aid towards enlightenment or satori, each image representing a different stage towards the goal of existential illumination. The seventh image depicts an empty circle, a void, which is meant to symbolize transcendence. Below this ―void‖ or emptiness will be presented as the place where we may find ourselves in chaos. It is in fact the eye of the hurricane that titles this project meteorologically, metaphorically, and metaphysically.
III. Winds of the Gods unleashed: expanding rationality and somatic considerations
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Plato. 1997 the ―Apology," in Plato: Complete Works. Edited by John C. Cooper, translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis/Cambridge. Hackett Publishing Company. 17-36. 144 Plato.1956. Phaedrus. Translated by W.C. Helmbod and W.G. Rabinowitz, New York, Macmillan Publishing Company;1987.
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In the west, the human body has been eyed mistrustfully at least since Plato yearned to free his soul from the shackles imposed by the flesh. Through his influence and Christianity‘s own disparagement of our physiques, orthodox intellectual circles have perennially favored mind over body in not so subtle ways. The body gets in the way of our intelligence if anything, detracting from our search for and contemplation of truth with an array of physical needs of dubious moral cleanliness. Reason is the favored faculty ―for reasons‖ obvious enough. Rationality is usually defined in a narrow sense: giving reasons for one‘s actions. These reasons are a purely intellectual affair. ―What else would they be?‖ seems to be the appropriate retort at the audacity, or folly, that seeks a wider scope. Next, I present a tentative framework that suggests how to expand both the mainstream notion of rationality and the prevalent Western understanding of the mind/body relationship, relying on Maxine SheetsJohnstone‘s views for the former145 and Yuasa Yasuo for the latter.146 Maxine Sheets-Johnstone develops and defends a kinesthetic-tactile model of rationality where ―[m]ovement engenders rich and complex conceptual, psychological, and social meanings.‖(103) As she points out, movement is essential to various modes of learning. In addition, it is also an experience to be understood in itself.147 She argues that kinetic intelligence, the know-how we develop as we physically interact with the world, challenges common understandings of rationality as a purely mental process whereby we find reasons for action. Sheets-Johnstone seeks to clarify rationality in the context of caring. She states that we all begin ignorant, and one of the primary ways we learn is through movement.148 One area where the unity of the body and mind is most patent, something underscored by the Eastern/Japanese model, occurs when we move and touch things. These kinesthetic and tactile facets to our corporeal existence are affectively consequential, and keys to the expansion of the idea of the rational. Sense-making often enough develops and transpires not only by means of rules as specified neurologically by the brain, but also in tandem with embodied movement. As she states, there are unarticulated reasons that are implicit in sense-making, which are not rules specified by the brain but discovered in the very process of sense-making (Sheets-Johnstone, 145). Sport is one of the most fruitful manners in which to develop and maximize this dynamic, spatial, tactile, kinesthetic, and embodied way of sense-making. Those sports and occupations that enlist and challenge more our kinesthetic skills, chiefly hazardous, high-performance ones, will allow for deeper and wider exploration of this ability to understand and relate to the world, and our individual place in it.149 Rationality, in a chronological sense, begins not with logos, but with movement in the sense that to be able to give reasons for one‘s actions and beliefs one must first be capable of acting reasonably. A fundamental part of this process whereby one is acting is found in bodies that learn in a kinesthetic and tactile way (Sheets-Johnstone, 144). These reasons may be unarticulated, implicit in the sense making, but they guide our choices nonetheless (Ibid.). Learning in this fashion about one‘s reasons, by means of actions, is definitely Socratic in both body and spirit: this allows us to walk the talk. In brief, this broader model of rationality enhances our ability for self-examination—somatic, intellectual, emotional, and 145
See Maxine Sheets-Johnstone ―Rationality and Caring: an Ontogenetic and Phylogenetic Perspective.‖ Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 2002.Vol. 29, 136-148. 146 Yuasa, Yasuo. 1987. The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory. Edited by T.P. Kasulis, translated by Nagatomo Shigenori and T. P. Kasulis. New York. SUNY press. Observing Japanese custom, I list family name first. 147 As far as this latter point, Morris‘s ―Touching Intelligence‖ presents a very insightful analysis of wielding objects, in his case a tennis racquet, by resorting to phenomenology and a study of what he calls resonant and reverberant modalities. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 2002. Vol. 29, 149-161. 148 Something very much in line with the underlying Socratic view of wisdom endorsed in this paper, since self-knowledge originates in awareness of one‘s ignorance. 149 Genetically speaking, that is, in terms of how this process actually unfolds for us, this is explored in the company of others: we learn about these possibilities from and through others.
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philosophical.150 Moreover, this model can readily be transferred to games and sports given that movement and action are central to them, and thus can act as advantageous loci for exploration and examination. After all, action is a key aspect to movement and life, which sounds banal until we unpack its implications. Rather than by means of mere reflection, we come to learn and live to the fullest through actual movement, tactile sensations, and social interaction. And to further our prospects for a full life, Eastern and Japanese conceptions of the body are apposite: they supplement this process with their dynamic views on the self and the mind/body relationship, which are tied to character development on its way to enlightenment. Yuasa‘s inquiry of Eastern understandings of the self shows a conceptual distinction markedly different from the Western one.151 Below follows a comparison based on his findings that provides a meaningful context to bolster the contention that the Eastern model is more conducive to a practice that suits the Socratic pursuit of wisdom not only because it better fits the actual process whereby one becomes wiser, but just as relevantly because it is tied to a conception where outward activity, that is physical, is indissolubly connected with inward meditation. As Yuasa explains, ―true knowledge cannot be obtained simply by means of theoretical thinking, but only through ‗bodily recognition or realization‘ (tainin or taikoku) […] Simply stated this is to ‗learn with the body,‘ not the brain.‖ (25-6) incidentally, this dovetails perfectly with Maxine-Johnstone‘s views as well as with the role given to certain sports below. In summary, this model naturally supports an embodied model of rationality through which we gain insights about the world and ourselves. Mainstream Western ―dogma‖ draws an analytic distinction between the body and the mind (Yuasa, 25).152 The dualistic Western model of the self is static, in the sense that it considers the self in terms of an essence, of what it is. For Descartes we are a thinking substance, for instance. This also makes it universal, since this essence is applicable to all designata under its aegis. Existentialism, which might claim exemption from this categorization, also follows this pattern as Yuasa‘s editor Thomas Kasulis writes, for it considers individuals as either authentic or inauthentic, not being concerned with the process of how one progresses from one to the other (Yuasa, 3).153 Alternatively, the Eastern model presents a relational and dynamic view of the self: it is a work in progress where achievement is the key idea. In fact, it is the single most relevant difference between the two philosophical ―worlds‖ as far as this issue is concerned. The self is developed and perfected, and instead of the abstract notion of the self we find concrete, exceptional and exemplary individuals. If Socrates is the Western role model of self-knowledge par excellance, the Eastern counterpart, to be consistent with the model favored under Yuasa, must be both intellectually and 150
One aspect I do not delve into is the important role emotions play in our rational thinking. Contemporary neuroscience provides plenty of evidence for this. For an exposition of this see Antonio Damassio.1994. Descartes‟ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York. GP Putnam. Given that our emotional reactions are regulated by our ―reptilian‖ brain, at the level of the medulla or below, and through hormones, I subsume this process under the concept of the body and corollary terminology. When I say that we think with our bodies, or use the term ―embodied‖ and similar epithets, this emotional aspect forms part of the claim. 151 There may be some ontological differences between Eastern and Western views borne out of the different process undergone, but that is a thorny issue we need not be concerned with here. This comparison, purposively partial, obviates similarities, and focuses on differences to provide a better contrast, and highlight what I take to be useful, germane disparities. 152 Although I am not too comfortable with Yuasa‘s dualistic vocabulary, ironically in spite of his efforts to endorse a unified mind/body theory, I am sympathetic with his position. A more materialist-based vocabulary that also takes advantage of extensional and intensional descriptions to discuss this would be more adequate, but to leave matters consistent and not introduce another layer of complexity, I follow the terminology he uses. 153 In existentialism the emphasis is on the universal condition, not the perfected state—unless we imbue the Sartrean existential project with this gradual ―work-in-progress‖ aspect. Nonetheless existentialism seems to be amenable to be adapted to these views. Some phenomenological views of the body are also very close to this Eastern model, e.g., MerleauPonty, as Yuasa points out. The Frenchman also postulates and defends a union of body and mind, yet he does not follow the dynamic, gradually developed achievement model of the East (25).
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physically exemplary. Musashi Miyamoto fills these shoes, as Tokitsu Keiji‘s biographic study shows.154 Not only was he arguably the most skillful swordsman of his era, he also took care of excelling in and developing his artistic and literary side. To take this to the sporting realm, it is not mere coincidence that Yuasa uses athletes as an example to illustrate the different methodologies and approaches (24). Sports provide a clear case where we can observe the development of skill and accomplishment at varied stages: from the bumbling novice to the consummated champion. To further contrast West and East consider the issue of the mind/body relationship as it relates to free will. The Occidental view of this relationship places it on the empirical level, neuroscience probes the brain for clues to our mental life, and one explains free will as either being present or not: your choice to read these words right now is conceptualized in terms of whether free will is operative, depending on whether causality is binding at all levels. The Oriental stance finds a correlative interaction between mind and body that implies there are degrees of freedom, whether you are more or less compelled to read this hangs on a number of factors, foremost among these being whether you have good or better reasons to justify it (this article being really interesting is a very good and self-serving rationale for both of us). Additionally, the East focuses on how discipline leads to the unity of mind and body, and how our thoughts are carried out in embodied action. Yoga (it means discipline) and Zen meditation demonstrate this embodied and acted discipline and process that leads to a possibly more liberating union of mind and body achieved through practice. Indeed, this is connected to the notion of achievement along a continuum of excellence, which hinges on the practitioner‘s talent and diligence.155 In this context sport is more appropriate a model than the usual ―raise your arm, and did you do so freely‖ example favored by Western philosophers, as Kasulis brings up in his introduction: in the East one seeks the integration of theory, practice, and skill (mind, body, achievement) (4).156 Consider tennis for example: one learns to assimilate what one learns about how to serve or hit a backhand with the actual swinging and the development of the skill. Last, and dovetailing from the above, in the East whether the union of body and mind is achieved, and to what purpose and degree of perfection, is testable by actions. To illustrate this last point with our exemplary ―wisdom poster boys‖… Socrates gave proof of both his courage and search to embody an ideal not only in his speeches, but also with his resolute behavior in battle, his willingness to risk death for what he considered just action, and his relentless pursuit to oblige the oracle. Musashi in turn led a life whose relentless pursuit to perfecting kendo, the art of swordsmanship, became a strategy, which for him meant a lifelong quest not merely martial tactics. Musashi‘s focus was so intense that he eschewed anything that might be a distraction. As such, he had little regard for social conventions that were extraneous to his search, e.g., he did not care one straw for his physical appearance and care in a culture that saw this as socially paramount, hence encountering much disdain on account of this. The reasons why he never married give further proof of his uttermost dedication. For Musashi marriage was incompatible with the nomadic and risky requirements of his path. Having to care for a wife would be too distracting for him. Moreover, the lifestyle would not be fair to the woman, since as an errant swordsman duels to the death were common, and he might be killed at any moment. Musashi finally found enlightenment in his art, and dedicated the rest of his life to furthering his insights. This led to
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Tokitsu Kenji. 2004. Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings. Translated by S.C. Kohn. Boston & London, Shambala. This has repercussions for the goal of the activity we pursue, in sports the pertinent issues being: why do we engage in it? Is it merely to win? If so, should we try to win at all costs? Or, should we practice this sport so that we may perfect ourselves? 156 One is wise and knows the truth both gnoseologically and epistemically as a psychophysical awareness, not just in a purely intellectual fashion. 155
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an inquisition about excellence in and through other realms, and saw him becoming an accomplished writer and painter of celebrated skill. Emphasizing achievement has relevant consequences for sports and our Socratic quest, since they become more concrete and pertinent. We find role models, and we also change our notion of what it is to excel and why and how to engage with sports. In addition, all of the above coheres with current views on the development of our brain and psychophysical abilities, so our empirically favored approach is not at cross-purposes but rather well aligned with these ideas. With these two elements in place, the expanded view of rationality and the achievement-based position on the development of our mind and body conglomerate, the next step presents how risky endeavors, which arguably are enterprises where these two elements find a refined expression, may bring about self-knowledge. IV. The eye of the hurricane: sports and the enlightened life A. Risky and High-performance Sports The moment of truth has come. The question facing us is: how can sports of the risky or high-performance kind lead to an examined life? The short answer is that by putting the daredevil or the athlete in limit situations these act as tests of character or resolve. These circumstances provide real world tests in extraordinary circumstances. As J.S. Russell argues, ―Risky sports or those that push the body to the limit, in principle, are more adequate to find out what we are made up of because they incorporate a challenge to capacities for judgment and choice that involve all of ourselves—our body, will, emotions, and ingenuity—under conditions of physical duress and danger at the limits of our being.‖(14)157 These sports on the edge, always involving a combination of threat and highly developed skills, provide unique opportunities to test epistemic truths one might surmise about oneself, and perhaps turn them into gnoseologic insights: the ―I know I am technically capable of surfing a 30-foot wave‖ epistemic ―truth‖ may become the ―I actually buckled at the critical moment, and hence am lacking in courage and resoluteness‖ type of insight. Therein we may truly transform the epistemic stance and embrace the gnoseologic insight with our whole being: body, mind, emotion, and skill performed in action. The dangers involved or the duress of the trial, which is what most sane, or at least normal, people try to avoid, is a crucial aspect of what makes these appealing. But it is not the only one. There are other elements to be presented as the discussion ensues. First, for a few practitioners at least, this is not done because of the bragging rights, the thrill or some other extraneous perk (the case with many), but because the activities in question are privileged opportunities for self-examination. There are remarkable chronicles of arduous and perilous exploits, pace Reinhold Messner‘s or Jon Krakauer‘s mountaineering feats, or narratives of uncommon resilience and mettle by endurance athletes, such as those penned by runners Roger Bannister or George Sheehan, which provide testimony of sportspeople not only performing at the highest level, but also extracting deep insights about themselves and about life. Additionally, let‘s not forget that the context within which these activities take place is the larger environment of nature, where the elements of geography and meteorology are beyond our control. As Douglas Anderson puts it: ―Nature both allows and inspires this quest for authenticity. The climbing of Everest or K2 is not just about the mountain, it is the lure of an authentic encounter with oneself and with what is most
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J.S. Russell. ―The Value of Dangerous Sport.‖ Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 2005. Vol. 32. 1-19.
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real.‖(149)158 An encounter that may lead to a view into ourselves in line with the existential Socratic self-knowledge under consideration for those able and willing to look within. Further progress at this point is halted by some severe gusty winds that bring trouble. Some have argued that athletes, particularly those performing at the elite level, are some of the most unreflective people around.159 I second this based on my own observations and, more poignantly, because I ironically epitomized such opacity, being quite ignorant as to the actual reasons for my very serious involvement with bicycle racing (which has prompted this piece as partial redress). However, and even if this is true, my contention is that at least the subset of sports I focus on may be an advantageous path to deep insights about ourselves in so far as the experiences they provide, if coupled with a reflective mindset, can result in a more profound insight than mere reflection sans the experience—all things being equal.160 This is the case for certain areas of our existence that demand us to commit and act, often those that involve courage, resolve, endurance, confidence, and a number of other ―reputable‖ virtues. To polish my stance then, these activities under duress are instrumentally useful in testing one‘s mettle and resolve, and as such, like war in olden times as Russell argues,161 the weakness or strengths of one‘s character come through. Yet some may contest, as they comfortably pontificate from an armchair, that the essential and sufficient element here is reflection, best carried out in the precise tranquility of one‘s study not the distracting commotion characteristic of barbaric activities. To come to know oneself, introspective thinking is all that is needed. I agree … to some extent. Surely one can learn about oneself by ―merely‖ thinking, however this is easier said than done with regard to certain spheres of life, primarily those with ethical and existential ramifications. Thinking may suffice in primarily intellectually and life-divorced domains such as a personal disposition with regard to the relevance of a priori and transcendental arguments or the fitness of introspection for selfknowledge —which nonetheless may be individually rather important. However, what I defend is that certain lessons we may learn about ourselves actually require us to get off that couch. Foremost among these are those that concern our lives in direct and practical ways: our professional status and future, our assets (physical, intellectual, economic), the lives of those we care about, how well we ascend—if at all—the dauntingly vertical face of the mountain. We may be surprised by the difference between our cogitations and our actions. The courage and determination we were sure to validate may disappear condensed into small beads of sweat when faced with the rushing wall of water or simply confronting one‘s wrongdoings with the people that matter.162 To close this with Musashi, who writes not only ex cathedra but also with life balancing on the sharp edge of a sword: ―The most important thing is training in conjunction with reflection.‖(Tokitsu, 232) Having dealt with these blustery winds, the next step takes us closer to our destination. Besides the severe environment within and from which one can potentially learn about oneself, there is another facet these sports bring to the table, and which also connects with the stance previously developed in part three in connection with achievement: they require high 158
Douglas Anderson. ―Recovering Humanity: Movement, Sport, and Nature‖ in Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 2001. Vol. 28.140-150. Kevin Krein also has a very interesting piece where he discusses risk and the role of nature in this type of endeavors. See his ―Risk and Adventure Sports‖ in Philosophy, Risk, and Adventure Sports.2006. Edited by M. McNamee, 80-93. 159 Mike McNamee noted, on his way to argue for a moderate view of paternalism for athletes, that this group of professionals includes some of the least self-reflective people he has encountered. Ethical issues regarding human enhancement technologies: Therapy, Enhancement and the traditional goals of medicine in sport. 35th Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport. September 19 – 22, 2007 Ljubljana, Slovenia. 160 Just what sort of reflective mindset this is may be where the details and the devil hide, but given the scope of this article I forsake a confrontation with this formidable foe for another occasion. 161 He argues for this at different points. See footnote 18 for reference. 162 In a related matter, we should remember that reasonable—sense-making— behavior sometimes predates the verbalized world of logos for the more primeval, though no less important, realm of the tactile and kinesthetic.
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levels of skill and fitness—this being the second key element on which self-knowledge is based within the context of these sports.163 B. The Eye of the Hurricane: poise and lucidity in turmoil Musashi writes at the end of his treatise on swordsmanship The Book of Five Rings: ―In emptiness the good exists and evil does not exist. Knowing exists, the principle exists, the way exists, and the mind—is void.‖(Tokitsu, 196) Indeed, this void—the eye of the hurricane—is where we are headed, but to get there we must deal with the turmoil that surrounds it. And this requires, as I intimate, a high level of accomplishment, which entails physical skill, moral fortitude, intelligence (in the expanded kinesthetic view), and many years of practice. To be able to act with a cool head in the type of ventures under consideration, say ―simulclimbing,‖ requires a long period of development.164 It needs a discipline. This is a selfimposed regime of assiduous and rigorous training. And in this case the sense of discipline as a field of knowledge becomes pertinent as well, for it is also a means of learning about the activity and oneself as explorer of the possibilities if offers to experience oneself engaging the world through that specific endeavor. Risk and high-performance sports inherently require this process of development more so than others, since the level of expertise and fitness required to even engage in them is quite high. In other words, novices are excluded, for their clumsiness and lack of preparation and skill get in the way. The body is out of synch as it tries to adapt to the situation, when what the circumstances require is not ―trying‖ but simply ―doing.‖ The greenhorn is all trepidation and nerves, unerringly being unable to perform and experience the magic of the moment: the wave swallows him, she slides down the slope out of control, or he miscalculates, ―blows-up,‖ and has to quit the race. Only after a long and dedicated pursuit can one perform without thinking. A certain type of experience, usually referred to as ―peak experience‖ both in the scholarly literature and the vernacular, becomes possible after reaching a level of competence that allows proficient performance in the enterprise of choice.165 As Hyland explains, this experience tends to be very meaningful and intense, time is felt slowing down, the focus is complete while the performance and awareness of surroundings and self are heightened, and in spite of the intensity of the moment there is a feeling of effortlessness in the midst of difficulty (79ff).166 Grace under pressure describes this well enough. The moves become intuitive.167 The body and mind become a unity that is the activity itself. In the case of sports
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Those who excel at both performing and reflecting are not necessarily those who are the best in the sport, although ceteris paribus and mindful of the differences inherent to the sport in question they might be in a better position to gain better insights. But even ―also-runs‖ in these activities must be highly trained, capable, and plucky, for the requirements to simply participate are quite demanding already. The key idea is to be able to come through at the end, and then to reflect on it. 164 Simulclimbing is an alpine-style sprint by two climbers: speed is the key to it. Peaks that would normally take many days to climb can be ascended in one or two days. The downfall, metaphorically and literally, is that should one fall the other climber will be ripped off the face as well. 165 Another popular phrasing speaks of being ―in the zone,‖ which seems to be, at least, phenomenologically different. However, this is an issue that does not concern us presently. Abraham Maslow pioneered studies into peak experiences. 1968. Toward a Psychology of Being 2nd Ed. New York: Van Nostrand; 1971. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking Press. 175 ff. Related to but different from these are Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi‘s ―flow experiences‖ and similar happenings that Anderson also discusses. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row; 1998. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books. The main differences between peak and flow experiences seem to be the higher intensity and epiphanic revelatory character of the former, the higher frequency of flow given that it is easier to achieve and more controllable, and the level of skill required. 166 Drew Hyland. 1990. Philosophy of Sport. New York. Paragon House Publishing. 71-87. 167 In this regard, very promising work conducted by Vegard Fusche Moe removes some of the mystery as to how one may internalize complex movements so that they become automatic. See his ―Understanding the background conditions of skilled movement in sport: a study of Searle‘s ―background capacities,‖ in Sports, Ethics and Philosophy Vol. 1. No. 3 December
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that use tools such as skis, bicycles and the like, these become an extension of the body.168 At this moment, the athlete is performing in the eye of the hurricane. She becomes that void Musashi refers to, and amid the raging mayhem remains poised. The experienced and skillful sportsperson actually thrives on the indomitable challenges, working with and through them. Phenomenologically she disappears as a thinking agent, becoming one with the tools, should there be any, and the environment pertinent to the sport: the water, the air, the rock, the road, the forest, the snow, the bodies of competitors. While involved in the experience, there is no overt and conscious knowledge taking place, these moments in the void becoming the primal stuff from which posterior reflection may coalesce into a gold nugget of hard earned selfknowledge. These special experiences are exhilarating in the life of the sports person: the source of intense enjoyment that may have an epiphanic quality that may change lives. This process may be grounded on a biological substratum, certain hormones percolating, neurons firing, and muscles and bones moving, but it is concurrently informed by a phenomenological experience that is mediated by and in turn interpreted through cultural categories as seen through a personal prism. How one understands victory or defeat, effort or agony, the context and one‘s ―frame of mind‖ are not just biologically driven and psychologically experienced, but also individually and culturally understood. Of course, without careful reflection, as dedicated as the training needed to succeed in the ―arena,‖ the activity itself will yield no worthy insights. Let‘s remember Musashi‘s statement to this effect: we must reflect in conjunction with the activity. Truly, this is crucial to this process of self-knowledge grounded on high-level physical activity. And nothing is more Socratic and ―rational‖ than this: finding one‘s reasons for one‘s action (which as we have seen involves somatic facets of kinetic and tactile character, and is emphasized by Eastern methodologies). In the context of sports, prominent among the many reasons people engage a particular activity are competition and winning. These may be pursued for the sake of victory or for other less ―pure‖ incentives. If the goal of victory is for fame, reputation, money and the like, this will be an unlikely path to self-knowledge because external motivations make focus on ourselves and our relation to the sport less viable. The gnoseologic insight, the existential truth about our lives, will be hidden from us behind the glitter and gleam of those extrinsic ―goods.‖ If it is a means to push ourselves further in order to excel, the goal being perfection in the sport itself out of an appreciation for the values internal to the practice itself—to evoke Alasdair MacIntyre—then the likelihood of excelling, in the sense of serving the ends of the activity, and of gaining insight into ourselves, increases. If nothing else (and nothing more!) because we will take a reflective and thoughtful look as to why we actually are devoted to and how we do behave in such hazardous activities. After all we‘d better have good reasons to genuinely risk our well-being. Moreover, it is vital to emphasize the gradual nature of this process of achievement whereby one aims towards excellence. To bring this back to selfknowledge again, there is a wide range of gnoseologic insights possible: we stand to learn about how the world can be experienced; about the joy of movement; about the satisfaction to be found in pursuing a discipline, about our abilities, weaknesses and strengths; about how we assimilate failures and successes; about how we deal with our limits and face our fears. 169 All 2007. 299-324; and ―A Philosophical Critique of Classical Cognitivism in Sport: From Information Processing to Bodily Background Knowledge‖ in The Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 2005. Vol. 32, 155-183. 168 Morris‘s article, cited above, is very pertinent. Emily Ryall has also presented work that supports the thesis that equipment can be said to be ―felt‖ as an extension of the body. What‟s Wrong with the Idea of an Embodied Athlete? 35th Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport. September 19 – 22, 2007 Ljubljana, Slovenia. 169 A connected issue to be pursued in more detail at a later time concerns the role that limits play in this process. Knowing one‘s limits is a must to succeed and advance in the athletic and the existential quest. This is connected to the Socratic path in an obvious enough manner, bespeaking of an awareness of one‘s epistemic, gnoseologic, physical, and existential boundaries. Indeed, risky and high-performance sports are predicated on looking for and pushing these limits. Moreover, as we confront our limits we must also deal with fear, danger, and failure. Far from being simply negative sources of dismay, they may also
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of which contributes to a deeper knowledge about our character as we face tribulations or achievements. Added to this is the enhancement of those experiences by this very reflection, without forsaking the revelations one may acquire along the way: experiences and epistemic truths that coalesce into wisdom, into gnoseologic insights.170 With this admonition to set on the active trail towards self-knowledge, the turbulence abates. Completely. V. Aftermath: concluding remark To pithily put this discussion in a nutshell: high-performance and risky sports not only do not exclude cognitive content, nor are they merely compatible with, but rather they complement more purely intellectual modes of knowledge in a way that underscores our embodied kinesthetic and tactile rationality and the dynamic nature of our self and its search for self-knowledge as an excellence to be achieved.
offer, for those who reflect on them, a great opportunity to develop. There is a danger of being ignorant about our limits when we confront turmoil. Instead of becoming a void that adapts and allows us to masterfully ride the big waves of the ocean or life, our body and life become chaotic. 170 The quality and depth of the insights are not themselves transferable either to others or to other spheres of life. issing. You can cook for me— which is a great help already—but I have to eat the food myself if I am to enjoy your cooking and be fed.
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CULTIVATION AND MARTIAL ARTS Maja Milčinski Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
The title of the paper indicates the problem which I would like to avoid by not using terms East and West and not to over-generalise the problem, although I am taking into consideration the fact that each domain, region, period etc. produced different problems and tried to solve them in the specific way. I shall not get into the native American tradition, although it is very instructive, but will concentrate on the materials I have taken during the past thirty years in Asia (mainly in China, Japan, Tibet and India), concentrating particularly on Chinese tradition of martial arts and try to show some differences while commenting on them. I am not taking body as something given, but am aware of the fact that it and the notions about it were formed through history, as much as the concepts of harmony, order etc. We have to take into consideration the values of the society in which the philosophers, teachers, pupils, patients, doctors operate and the specific ways of being bodies and their implications for the martial arts from without (as an object), as well as from within (how it is subjectively experienced). In the video materials presented to you, I am trying to show you the difference between the obsession with musculature practices in the European and American tradition and portrayed from ancient times in Greek art and the absence of muscles in the great Chinese martial arts masters and in Daoist yogis. As for the Chinese self-cultivation techniques, muscle strength is not supposed to be used, since it can produce an ego involvement, which should be minimalised or even eliminated, if possible. This goes for self-defence as well as for various movement techniques of cultivation or meditation, which should not be based on striving. Through excessive striving balance might be lost. The methodology is based on the Daoist notion of wu-wei (the absence of intentional action), through which the primal Dao (primal unified energy without name or form) can be reached. This is not accessible through pure human effort and the extraordinary self-mastery is often based on the principle of wuwei (non-interference with the Dao) which produces effortless and efficient action known also in the athletic performance in the zone when the physical skills reach supraordinary levels. In Daoism, however the so called spiritual child created within the flesh is able to support and express metanormal capacities based on varous ego-transcending process by which extraordinary life arises. I am concentrating on martial arts in the sense of wu shu or gong fu in their two major streams: Inner-Internal Martial arts (nei jia quan) and External Martial arts (wai jia quan). and on their symbolic meanings as the kinetic keys for the door of consciousness. The most neglected part of the martial arts discipline practised outside of China is the ethical one and the essential understanding of the pupil‘s mind & spirit (as well as the body, but not entirely or primarily the body). That is why the purification practices are such an important part of the martial arts since they can help us to reach the essential forces for our Inner Nature and to do away with our deepest fears and worries. The ethical standpoint of the practices teaches us to respect the body (physical), cultivate it, but not to develop attachment to it. The paradox of liberation techniques lies in the divergence of embodied experience in China and Europe. We refer to »my body«, speaking of it as of something that belongs to us, but at the same time we belong to it! This tension between belonging and possessing the body is well expressed in the ancient Chinese Daoist text Dao de jing
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The reason why I have great distress Is that I have a body. If I had no body, what distress would I have? Therefore, to one who values acting for himself over acting on behalf of the world, You can entrust the world. And to one who in being parsimonious regards his person as equal to the world, You can turn over the world.171 This paradox is inherent to the nature of the body itself or to our attachment to it. Cultivation techniques, which form an essential part of martial arts, lead us to the transcendence of the ego (body). Only on such a basis salvation, liberation is possible, since in the instinctive, uncontrolled belief that we are our bodies lies the cause of our slavery to the physical world. We have to practice to really know and embody such an experience. This might in time awaken intellectual intuition in us and the body would become a tool for deep wisdom and explorations, a supreme cognitive instrument. In this relation it is important to mention the spiritual goal of warriorship as it was practised in Asia by maintaining a very high degree of ethical conduct. In India warriorship and war carry a very important spiritual potential and the spiritual texts go beyond mere dualisms such as (victor-vanquisher, friend-enemy). How is the battle won and the motives for fighting it are much more important than winning and it goes as well for the sports, which is an end in itself not the means to satisfy personal and group vanity. Right physical training therefore produces insight wisdom required to make right decisions and judgements. We have to train ourselves inward by meditative insight to know how to protect ourselves not only in this physical realm but also in other dimensions of being. Such is the spiritual basis and implications of martial arts practised in the triple field of mind/speech/body. Ideas about the human body mirrored (and were themselves mirrored in) ideals about body politics in Greece, as well as in China. The analogies between the macrocosm and microcosm were quite usual in the classical philosophical texts like Plato's Republic (»healthy state«), as well as in the Chinese texts of the Warring States period (Lushi Chunqiu) or in Huangdi neijing. In both cases there are analogies and ties between ideal places and ideal bodies, between the imagination of utopias and the imagination of health. We see general tendencies to the preoccupation with flow, while accumulation is considered evil. If one constantly makes the body work, then the blood and breaths will circulate, and digested food will not stagnate: this is the crux of the cultivation of life.172 When reflecting on Asian notions of the Body, we should remind ourselves of an American scientist dr. Judah Folkman who has more than 40 year ago discovered the ways how cancer functions and on this basis developed a new medicine endostatine, which is not poison as most of the anti-cancer medicines are and has less side effects than aspirin, since its target are not cancer cells but the healthy cells that provide nutrition to the cancer cells: so his aim is to stop the food to the cancer cells and let them die, because of the lack of nutrition. Angiogenesis (normal process of the growth of new blood vessels – during the growth of foetus, menstruation and the recovery from the wounds) was the basis of Dr. Falkman's research: tumour without blood veins cannot grow bigger than the head of a pin. So growth of tumour is stimulated by a mysterious factor, which accelerates the growth of new blood vessels, which enable the tumour to grow and develop further. He was severely criticised by 171
Lao-Tzu, Te-Tao Ching, trans. Robert G. Henricks (New York: Ballantine, 1989), 65.
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Kaibara Ekiken, Yojo-kun, Wazoku-kun (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1981), 44.
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scientific establishment, since at that time not many scientists were looking for the cause of tumour formation in the blood vessels. If we stop the growth of new blood vessels, the growth of the tumour will be blocked. Since Dr. Falkman has been operating the tumours he had completely different perspective from the one his colleagues had, he has seen and handled cancers: they were hot, red and bloody and when critics would say we do not see any blood vessels in these tumours, he knew that they were looking tumours that were taken out, all the blood was drained, they were looking at specimens, on which medicine has been taught since ancient times in Europe. In Asia, however, they did not teach anatomy on dead bodies – they are something completely different from the patients filled with qi, prana, the vital energy so crucial for the practice of martial arts and life in general. To refine vitality into energy, energy into spirit, spirit into space and shatter space to merge with the Dao is the way of self-cultivation on which the martial arts should be based. The paradox however is that the self-cultivation techniques are based on austere practices, which should be omitted as soon as a higher stage of development is reached. Enlightenment is within us, undiscovered and all the attempts to force the things with one‘s imperious will are just in contrast to the Daoist way as described in the Dao de jing (chapter 72): Therefore the Sage knows himself but doesn‘t show himself; He cherishes himself but doesn‘t value himself. For this reason, he rejects that and takes this.173 This is the state from which the positive yang (enlightenment and spiritual power) grows. As such, it influences also the emotional well-being and creates a way of thinking-being in the world that is able to convert all the possible frustrations into a modified type of well-being. Yogi sought to escape nature‘s dominion, to fashion the body not as a vehicle for return and reconciliation, but rather as a separate world, self-contained, self-controlled, free from chaos. As for the ―paradox of liberation‖ it should be mentioned that the rules of yoga hygiene are not only all-restrictive, but are few and simple and as such are supposed to be liberating since in the process they should free us from a large number of restrictions we have consciously or unconsciously placed upon ourselves. The self imposed austerities are transcended so that our own power can manifest with which we can be useful and enjoy life – these two dimensions are compatible from the yogic perspective of the restoration of biochemical balance. It is based on the right body-mind-spirit perspective and on the well-balanced course of physical, mental, moral and spiritual regime, which is also the basis of the self-cultivation methods in Asian martial arts. The unity of body-mind-spirit was important in most of the Asian traditions, also in Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism, the thought streams which were critical to the intentional undertakings of self-cultivation in Asian martial arts. The psychophysical potentials developed in the self-cultivation process are crucial for lucid elaboration of philosophical theses and theories and are the cornerstone of salvific project which is the main target of major Asian philosophical and religious traditions and martial arts. Since those present an important challenge and dilemma for the ethics and its application in everyday life, the critical examination should be given to the officially accepted or even politically promoted system of self-cultivation and the possibilities of an autonomous liberation project independent of the possible ideological traps of the prescribed methods of liberation and specific techniques in martial arts. It is important to take into consideration various scientific methodologies, as well as the dimensions of consciousness in regard to the possibilities of overcoming one-dimensionality of rationality and to bring into focus the classical texts that deal with the problems relevant to the tension between spiritual dimensions of the material 173
Lao-Tzu, Te-Tao Ching, 43.
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substratum and the mind-body-spirit continuum in the process of re-examining modern science and philosophy. The paradox of liberation, as I call it, teaches us that self-cultivation should be carried out in the right manner. Zhuang Zi indicates that it is futile to care for the body. He who wants to nourish his body must first of all turn to things. /…/ How pitiful the men of the world, who think that simply nourishing the body is enough to preserve life! /…/ It may not be worth doing, and yet it cannot be left undone – this is unavoidable.174 We have to take care of our bodies but should not develop hate or love for it. Much more important it is to understand the right way and equanimity towards the body, since this will help us to overcome our ego and to keep centred on the way of liberation, salvation. Body is our supreme cognitive instrument, but if we want to overcome the troubles, which are inherent to any existence, we have to practice and keep ourselves well balanced on the spiritual way to salvation and get to know our bodies in all its dimensions: as a metaphysical force, as well as a nexus of paradigmatic energies which enable us to get to know ourselves and our place in the world. The prerequisite for the martial arts as spiritual discipline is not strength as physical force but a stable, quiet mind and joy in life. The inner source of strength cannot be measured or known from its physical results. So long as the mind is disturbed and agitated by conflicting emotions and tensions, there is no peace of mind and no joy in life. The mind is not only the instrument of perception but also an important vehicle on the way to highest plane of consciousness. Therefore various practices should not tantalize the practitioners and their environment by clinging to repeated behaviour which might serve a particular purpose in various compensation mechanisms or mental disturbances. They should also not be based on repression but should be open to the methods that can change and redirect the course of emotions on a positive way and enable us to adapt successfully to the varying conditions of life or situations in psychosomatic relationships with ourselves or others and help us to reach a proper evaluation of life situations. Right living or rasayan (rejuvenation) through virtues is therefore the basis of integrated personality. One of important dimensions of martial arts is conquering the lower nature so that the higher nature can manifest itself. This is a prerequisite for the reunion with the natural spirit which is based on the cultivation of human nature and nourishment of temperament. Not only emotional mind (xin – controls emotions), but also the wisdom mind (yi – makes you calm and thoughtful) should be strengthened and cultivated, therefore most of the martial arts are the arts of the mind, by which the spirit is raised and the real meaning of human life comprehended. Physical health and ability of sound self-defence (yang) are just by-products of good cultivation of our temperaments and spiritual beings (yin). It is a constant process of external manifestation and internal cultivation, which originates from calmness and spirit stored in yi (wisdom mind). This is the supreme wisdom of the Dao de jing (chapter 10 and 76): In nourishing the soul and embracing the One /…/ In concentrating your breath and making it soft /…/ In cultivating and cleaning your profound mirror /.../ Give birth to them and nourish them. Give birth to them but don‘t try to own them; 174
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 197.
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Help them to grow but don‘t rule them.175 Rigidity and power occupy the inferior position; Suppleness, softness, weakness, and delicateness occupy the superior position.176 On the biochemical level of the body, hormones are enhanced and vital energy (qi, prana) is produced and stored more efficiently. The final stage of Chinese philosophical cultivation and spiritual pursuits is the unification of human spirit and the natural spirit (tian ren he yi). When the individual spirit becomes part of the natural spirit and contaminated human thoughts have been cleansed and purified it is manifest on the bio-energetic and bio-electrical levels. The paradox of the developed strategies of liberation however is that in the process, the ultimate strategy becomes having no strategy (wu-wei). To discover what is really spiritual in martial arts we must proceed beyond the thought-composed mind and mechanism and dissolve the thought on conscious and subconscious levels. The wu-wei absence of strategy becomes the only ―strategy‖ (if the strategy can be a process which is non-intentional!). It is not based on conceptual or analytical process, nor it is anything that we can arrive at through exclusively personal will and effort. This is a challenge for philosophy of sports, since in martial arts it is the thought itself, which can be detrimental in bringing you out of balance, as well as the right tool for bringing our partner out of balance, by helping her/him to raise a thought and by it loosing the balance. In Asian traditions the quality of philosophical undertaking is connected to the state of body-mind-spirit, therefore the cultivation techniques are philosophical projects par excellence.
175 176
Lao-Tzu, Te-Tao Ching, 62. Ibid., 178.
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THE ONE AND ONLY MEANING OF (SPORT) LIFE - TO THE MAIN CORE Børge M. Oftedal Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo Summer 2001 I was sitting and doing some reflections in my father‘s living room in my hometown, Sandnes in Norway. What came to me was an idea about the meaning of life; the main meaning, the very core, the one and only, actually. I send my idea to all my friends, to Professor Sigmund Loland and also to The Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.177 I have been talking about it for six years to people from all around the world. They all found it very interesting in different ways, and now I finally got the courage to publish it. In this paper I would like to explain my idea. I will follow this idea by also create the idea of the meaning of sport life. This leads to the subject ―Art of Movement‖ that I am teaching at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway. I claim that this subject has very central role in living the meaning of sport life. During my classes I have executed around 400 pre – and post tests. Here I have asked the students about the meaning of sport. I am bringing some of the results to this paper. I have also done an informal interview of one Norwegian Olympic athlete, to listen to her ideas of the meaning of life and sport life. Myself as a case My life so far has been an intense search for meaning by this circle of study; Experience, Reflection and Reading/Writing. There have been many ups and downs, much hard work and frustrations of how dominant the negative energy is on this planet. It has been a search for love, for happiness. I have done years of studies, I know lots of sports, worked with art and music, have had lots of jobs and travelled a lot. I have many talents but I have never been satisfied. I was Norwegian taekwondo champion for the second time in 2000, but still it didn‘t make my really happy. My further reflections leaded my to my idea of The Meaning of Life, summer 2001. I kind of found out of ―it‖ but still I could not do it; live it. Instead of this to be a turning point to something good, my life went strait down to such a hell it is not easy to imagine. January 2003 I was burned out, really sick. I got all kind of hard anxieties and fears. I could not breathe properly and I thought I was going to die, or at least live for a few more weeks at a hospital for psychiatric patients. I had yeast infection in my body and I had absolutely no control of my health, both mentally and physically. I visited a clairvoyant therapist that convinced me to join her school. So I entered this alternative school for developing skills in clairvoyance reading and healing. That saved my life, for sure! For one year I went on a strict diet and at the same time ―cleaned‖ my soul by facing all kind of mentally ―demons‖. Since that time I have slowly got better and better. Summer 2005 I got my MD in sports ethics and now, spring of 2008, I am starting to find love and happiness and where do I find it? Primarily deep inside myself, from many good friends and some members of my family. Now I am heading for the PhD, hoping for a long life career as a national and international teacher and scientist. The Meaning of Life In Oftedal (2004) I suggest an idea about the one and only meaning of life – that may support the lives of the young today. Wright (2004, p. 3) says: 177
http://nobelpeaceprize.org/ (23.09.07).
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“Rather than follow a predetermined linear trajectory, young people are now called on to balance their multiple involvements in study, employment, relationships and leisure; they are active in constructing their own lives.” Here is my definition about the one and only meaning of life: The most fundemental motivation one person has for staying alive and/or developing as a human being. This is dealing with a) If someone is deadly tired of life (maybe also considering suicide) and is seeking for a meaning, a reason for staying alive. b) The main focus of human beings lives; our main substance in life. Our main source, the core of the way we actually live our lives; the absolutely main seek for existence, living, meaning and development as human beings. c) The way human beings should care for one self, others, mother earth, the universe and everything that exists here. The logic of the idea starts with the statement: І) All humans beings are always on the search for a good life and/or are doing something that makes the life better for himself/herself. Here I am supported by Aristotel‘s Nicomachean ethics (1999) where it is said that the highest aim for a human being is to search for edaimonia, happiness. How do we find happiness? 1) We try to satisfy our needs. When we find and understand our needs, it is easier to make the right 2) Choice that satisfies our needs. When our needs are satisfied, we are able to experience happiness and we more or less have the life that we want. Martin (2005) claims that the need for friendship may have the greatest impact due to what make people happy. He finds that people who care about other people are on the average happier than those who are more preoccupied with themselves. But how do we find our needs? How can we be aware of what kind of needs that we actually have? What kind of needs do you have? Now I will present a second statement: П) We - human beings do not know ourself well enough. Here Freud (1992) writes that there is always something in the unconscious that we do not know. For better try to know ourself I want to present what I find to be the one and only meaning of life; Try to find out Who You Are! This statement is supported by Walsch (1997-2000) that in his books Conversations with God claims that the most important God want human beings to do is to try to find out who we are. Meaning of Sport life: Try to find out Who You Are by doing different kind of activities.
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When you find out more about Who You Are, you know better what kind of needs you have, and you can easier make the choices that lead you to a better life - and you will be happier. How can we live ‖the one and only meaning of life‖ in school when we try to teach the students how to develop creativity? The pedagogical method is inquiry-based learning,178 and the philosophy of Art of Movement (Skard, 2004 and Oftedal, 2007) is the basis: 1. Autonomy: A quality or condition of how to be relatively independent; the social psychology refers to characteristic of personality that implies a strong feeling of self acceptance and an independent position in the community (Kjørmo, 1994). The students are free to create much on their own where nothing is actually wrong. We try to develop each students potential to express themselves as a living human being. When the students create something and they understand that they discovered a new side in themselves, it is possible to claim that they in this creating process find out more about themselves. 2. Contact: Different kinds of contact games that put the students in good mood. Kaltenbrunner (1998, p. 181) writes about contact dancing: “A lot of contact dancers feel that through contact improvisation they gain insight into themselves, emotional maturity and are able to integrate the contact principles into their daily lives. It is possible to train both mental and physical flexibility and strength.” 3. Connection: It is important for human to belong to somewhere - to have friends, to feel included and to share an identity with a group. Well developed autonomy and contact very often lead to a great connection. Ommundsen et.al (1980) emphasizes the importance of doing sports in a friendly atmosphere. For a human being to find out that it is possible to trust other people and to have great support and love from others can be of great value. We do this by focusing at. o Creativity! o Free play! o Contact games! o Cheating! o Intrinsic motivation! o To feel acceptance, tolerance and to be safe! o Learn to ‖act stupid‖ and have fun. o Joy! o To be crazy in a good way! o To free your mind! Walsch, some conclusions In the so called alternative literature we find Neale Donald Walsch, and he claims to have direct conversations with God. I was really sceptical to this idea, but after reading it I was very shocked of how wise and interesting this dialog turned out to be, and how much I could agree to the words from ―God‖! Therefore I want to bring some of the conclusions for this paper. 178
Look here to read about inquiry learning: Wright, J.: Critical Inquiry and Problem-Solving in Physical Education. London: Routledge, 2004, p. 16-29. 100
1. We are all ONE! 2. There is enough! 3. Satan is an illusion! 4. It is about living here and now! 5. It is about LOVE! 6. It is all about finding out Who You Are! My way of following Walsch is facing my anxiety and fears, reaching for love and try to live my dreams. The Meaning of Life, Nozick Nozick (1981) writes about meaning and I briefly want to see the way I can connect my ideas to two of his eight modes of meaning. He presents Eight Modes of Meaning and I will have a look at number five and seven: 5. Meaning as personal significance, importance, value, mattering: Under this rubric is a completely subjective notion, covering what a person thinks is important to him. This is very much about my idea, because this is all about finding out who you are and what is important in ones life. 7. Meaning as intrinsic meaningfulness: objective meaning in itself, apart from any connections to anything else. Here I also can relate to my idea, because this is much about listen to one self and really try to find out what is giving meaning in life. Listen to your self and try to find out what is giving meaning for you, and then you are actually finding out who you are and what you need in life to make life meaningful. How are students responding? I asked my students about their thoughts of meaning through pre- and post tests. I have asked approx. 400 students the questions: 1. What is meaning due to sports? 2. How do sports give meaning in your life? Answers: - Meaning is something POSITIVE and important. - To have fun. - To make friends. - To get a distance from stress and worry. - To compete and to reach a goal. - To winn. - ‖Art of Movement‖ gave sports a new meaning. Interview with top athlete And here some of the answers I got from a top Olympic Athlete to the same questions: ‖I think of meaning when things are going bad, when I have injuries and I am not happy with the results in competitions. Should I do something else in life?‖ ‖Not many athletes in my sport talk about meaning.‖ We try to have fun and to reach new goals, to learn new flips and so on.‖ ‖It is important that other people that I care about appreciate my performances.‖ ‖If my health is good I think I want to continue because I love my sport so much. But I am older than the rest now, so the social environment in not like before.‖ 101
‖I think it is important also to have education, if not we do not develope enough as human beings.‖ Conclusions In this paper I have briefly tried to explain my idea about the one and only meaning of life, which I claim to be Try to find out Who You Are!
References: 1. Aristoteles, Stigen A.: Den nikomakiske etikk. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1999. 3. utg. 2. Freud, S.: Nytt i psykoanalysen: nye forelesninger til innføring i psykoanalysen. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1992. 3. Kaltenbrunner, T: Contact improvisation: moving, dancing, interaction: with an introduction to New Dance. Aachen: Meyer & Meyer, 1998. 1. Martin, P.: Making happy people: the nature of happiness and its origins in childhood. London: Fourth estate, 2005. 2. Nozick, Robert: Philosophical explanations. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981. 3. Oftedal. B. M.: Art of Movement – a Movement Revolution? In: Movement – the Art of Life Ш. Prague: Charles University in Prague: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, 2007. 4. Oftedal, B. M.: Filosofiske ideer: Et historisk paradigmeskifte. Oslo: Norges idrettshøgskole, 2004. 5. Skard, H: Kunsten å være i bevegelse. Trykksak. Oslo: Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, 2004. 6. Wright, J.: Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education. In: Critical Inquiry and Problem-Solving in Physical Education. London: Routledge, 2004, p. 3-15. 7. Walsch, N. D.: Himmelske samtaler; en uvanlig dialog. Oslo: Hilt & Hansteen, 19972000.
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TOWARDS A NEW PHYSICAL CULTURE; AN ACTIVIST‟S CRITIQUE OF SPORT Milan Hosta International Institute for Sustainable Development, Policy and Diplomacy of Sport
What of fatherland! Thither striveth our helm where our children's land is! Thitherwards, stormier than the sea, stormeth our great longing! "Why so hard!" said to the diamond one day the charcoal; "are we then not near relatives?" Why so soft? O my brethren; thus do I ask you: are ye then not my brethren? Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate in your looks? Nietzsche, Old and New Tables, Thus Spake Zarathustra
Abstract Our intention in this paper is to briefly address some of the basic categories that determine the paradigm of sport culture as we know it, and to show a possible path of expected paradigmatic changes in sport. We believe that by understanding basic categories, changes of the prevailing capitalistic paradigm, which reveals all the pathologies of modern man without any shame, can be made. After the disastrous winter Olympics 2010 luge and women downhill competitions the call for active reflection and recognized need for direct intervention in sport is loud enough for us to enter the stormy times that the present has put in front of us. Such active intervention demands that we travel into a field which was for a long time neglected by many of sport theoreticians, and only a couple of thinkers have shown the courage to step beyond the usual. Above all, as long as sport is interpreted by ―labhumanities‖ or academics trapped into the conflict of interests nothing much will happen in terms of the abolishment of obviously dehumanizing sport competitions. This paper is an attempt of an active political and philosophical approach based on the tradition of radical social-ecology and quantum universality. Therefore we are calling upon those who value the human being above the sport, and put consciousness prior to matter. In order to awake creating forces and provoke fruitful debate, we have abandoned some scientific or philosophic habits that would usually take place in a scientific paper. The intention is to provoke argumentation from various sources. That is why some arguments may not be sufficiently supported by literature review or by other field of sciences (sociology, psychology, pedagogy). With the same reasons and by the tradition of inner knowledge that social-ecology allows to flourish, we intentionally take some ideas on competitive sport as granted, although there is much more to say about it, and the reality is rarely as black and white as portrayed occasionally here. I take these non-scientific methods consciously on this journey in order to be inspired throughout this never-ending path. And finally, I turn towards fellows‘ philosophers who too often get so easily trapped in the web of words and thoughts, 103
not realizing that there is much more beyond that cannot be expressed by words only, but solely by experience, solely by being. When the paradigmatic shift from how we have bodies, turns into how we are bodies and much more, then the balance so much needed in sport and physical education will take place. But by no means the out of box methodology or style, should not be the reason for ignorance of statements and thoughts. The science, following Feyerabend, as well follows the logic of tradition from which it is born and from where we usually take the core criteria to look upon the practice. We wish to consciously avoid the same tradition in approaching the chosen topic, to the extent that we are able to.
1. ACTIVE PRINCIPLE Walking through the field of sport ethics we collide to fundamental dimensions of sport and of human being. Obviously we need to ask ourselves for what is it all about; for sport or for human being? It is about both! Although it is clear to us: there is no sport without human being! Well?! It is clear at first sight that sport is very complex phenomenon, which generates ethical contradictions. It is pinned between moral-educational and essential biological movement drives on the one side. On the other side, it is trapped between extreme exploitation and passionate images of our time, and playful innocence of body and mind. Although, vast amount of literature is written within the limits of autonomy of sport, sport ethics is given the chance to uncover deeply rooted patterns that governs sport. We can question the sole sport activity in this manner. We will not spent time searching for the one and only definition of sport. No definition guarantees us to understand and know sport more clearly. The hope of creating definition that is able to make a clear cut between sport and non-sport activity has been given up a long time ago. Strong support to our intuitive reasoning has been recently given by McFee (McFee, 2004). Every human community can be defined by certain paradigms. These paradigms work as the most substantial patterns that direct key relations among members of a community and nature as well. Sport as we know it from Anglo-American and European culture mostly incorporates the paradigm of progress and growth, awards the winning side, and is inferior to the institution, which governs, standardises, and colonises it in order to maintain the power position of leading socio-political structures of capitalism (Morgan, 1994; Loland, 2004; Brohm, 1989; Simonović, 1994; Holloway, 2005)). The concept of sport toward which we will devote further reflection in this paper is almost the opposite. The only common factor is that it is about the form of physical culture that we call sport. Our focus, intention, and structure are completely different from the usual understanding of sport. Therefore we are faced with the issue of inappropriate signifying of the developing issue that is not sport as we know it. It is something in becoming and that is why we choose to name the transitional period as play-sport culture.
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Changing the paradigm The first change, which should be regarded very seriously, is that we have now taken things in our own hands. No more can we blindly accept what our cultural legacy and valued centres of power offer us. The environment in which we are must not be seen as static or conceptualised as something given in advance and self-understood. Any environment is a result of relations among the subjects and/or objects that are in it, and further is always set in an even larger environment that defines its meaning as a whole. The environment is therefore an inherently relating space where the subject/player is always an active partaker of the structure and intention. We need to internalise the approach that says that the environment in which we find ourselves is not found but made. With the sole presence of people the place where we do sport instantly becomes different. We can modify such a place further by changing the technology and equipment which enable us to actively approach the creation of a movement-game environment that transcends into the world of play where the human being is the main actor. If we manage to do this well, we then face the world, which is by experiencing the whole holographically impressed into the player. Such experience reveals the co-natural way of living, where we cannot exist without considering personal and natural restraints, and where communication with every partaker (subjects and objects) is of high importance. In this sense the player is open to everything that surrounds him or her, and this is the way of spreading oneself further and deeper into the environment. This is the way to consciously accept the surroundings as part of the person, to actively interweave in the network of relations, and therefore to respectfully change the network alone. In this moment the ethics of our concept is firmly placed; it is about the responsible acceptance of ourselves and the environment together with all possible relations that has emerged by our entering the playground. The ideological background, the world-outlook, has to be consciously reflected in every human activity, since through our daily activities we create our world(s). If we are capable of such reflection, and this is the precondition for the paradigmatic changes we are looking for, then we have no hard time seeing how the current prevailing sport paradigm is affecting the society. In fact, if we have not realized by now, that the current sport paradigm is in service of reproduction of capitalism, then our belief in the philanthropic values of philosophy are questioned. The capitalism carries global destructive powers that pose existential questions ahead of all others. That is why even in sport, and particularly in sport philosophy we should be concerned with what we reproduce through our activities and work. It is symptomatic how the Marxist critic of sport well articulated in the works of Brohm (1989) and Simonović (1995, 2007) have never really been recognized in the main sport philosophy literature. The emancipatory will is at the core of our attempt for a new play-sport culture. Any other call for a humanization of sport is doomed to fail; whether it is naive attempt of paradigmatic change or just another parasitic justification of existing system. In order to support our claims we turn to latest discussions in the field of philosophy of sport. For example, Torres and Hager (2007) are offering us an example of reproductionist view of paradigmatic change (not much of a change). It is an attempt of justification of competitive nature of sport, by addressing the symptoms and not the cause. They do to a certain degree recognize the cultural embededness of competition, since they do call for the changing adults ―win-first‖ conceptions of competition first. But nevertheless, competition by structure presupposes mutually excluding goals and measuring the outcomes in terms of productivity, regardless of the interpretational skills in terms of mutual quest for excellence 105
etc. That is why their hopes that children will learn to compete in a good and decent manner will not see the light in practice. The competition forces adults and children to instumentalize at least the fellow competitor into an opponent and in its final stage degrade the playing being into mechanical body in order to move efficiently towards the end of the competition, winning alone. That is why we devote our thoughts to the sport outside of competition i.e. play-sport, where the only thing left from competitive sport are the names of the games and skills. The entitled concerns addressed by Torres and Hager about misdirected reforms and mislead children are even more obvious after misconceptional interpretation of authors alone. What is lacking in their conceptualization is recognition of life-destructive nature of competition among human beings and the emancipatory will from the existing paradigm. Lasch, writing about the culture of narcissism has already recognized reproductionist role of academia even in the sport sociology (1991: p.104): “A large amount of writing on sport has accumulated in recent years, and the sociology of sport has even entrenched itself as a minor branch of social science. Much of this commentary has no higher purpose then to promote athletics or to exploit the journalistic market they have created, but some of it aspires to social criticism.” Are we philosophers of sport any different? What happened to the love of wisdom, and to the responsibility according to interconnectedness of everyone and everything? Sloterdijk (2000) says that the hope, which says that we can learn at the very last moment of the worst possible scenario, can hardly be distinguished from the despair regarding our ability to learn at all. What has to happen, that we will be ready to start creating alternative world order? In the words of Sloterdijk; how large the catastrophe needs to be? Isn‘t sport the prime example of this kind of logic? An injury and process of rehabilitation is accepted as part of the ethos of true competitiveness. Numerous athletes are overcoming injuries caused by overtraining, extreme result-oriented approach, and in confrontation with fellow competitors, time and again, till the one last injury that is fatal to their sporting body. It seems like there is no quantitative limit of the seriousness of injury to set the didactic measure, and draw the line before the damage is too high. The most common response is that the athlete was aware of the risk, feeling the growing intensity, and not having the guts to step off the track, and say: “Enough!” No, he narcissistically goes on risking the injury, and when it happens, we hear the sound of redemption: “I knew it was coming, I should have stopped before!” Isn‘t the fate of our society the same? We know it, we sense it in our daily lives, but we do not stop doing harm to ourselves. Will there be any place for redemption!? By freeing itself from the restraints of nature, human being shares the destiny of the rest of the world (Horkheimer 1988). The domination of the nature includes also the domination over the human being. Therefore every man, being a subject of domination, has to cooperate in the process of domination over external nature, human and non-human. And in order to do that successfully, man has to enslave also the nature within. And this new reality of domination over nature, of redemption from nature, leads one to rationality in relation to instruments/tools, and irrationality in relation with human existence. From here to completely irrational instrumentalization in sport competitions is not a long path. And from here to the Ultimate man from Zarathustra prophecy is not far either. Ultimate man is the end of the instumentalization of the nature, external and internal. Ultimate man in social terms is the Darwin‘s Athlete (Hoberman) and Genetically Modified 106
Athletes in biological terms (Miah). The ultimate athlete is coming. It was there in Beijin Olympics and it will be again in London Olympics. According to Zarathustra, he is made from the full growth of all that is ugly in us. This ultimate man has to be avoided and the philosophy of sport should be the first one to recognize the tendency and smell of death, that ultimate man is bringing by winning the competition time and again. And we should also be brave enough to create a new man, since that is the only way to stop the ultimate man from reproduction. According to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh – alias Osho (1987: p.125) the new man is the one “who has moved from the head to the heart; a man whose priority is no more logic, but love; [...]. The new man can give you a new life, a new space to move, a new dimension, a new sense of direction. It is going to be inward. For thousands of years we have been moving outward. We have gone to far away from ourselves.” It is on purpose that we reach for unusual reference on the edge of the philosophy, but it is in-line with our intentions of further exploring the body and mind, and it is the path we chose when seeking for a new world. It is also our response to all those who defend competition with all the intellectual abilities and philosophic knowledge, but cannot see the ever-present seed of self-destruction in it. Competition as we know it is life-destructing. The art of living should be either life-creating or life-defending. Only this is worth fighting for. And as the Ultimate man is on the rise, such fight is not to be avoided or afraid of. It is the joy of life to create a new life; it is ecstatic, it is erotic and it is the humanness at its best. A New man is coming and a new sport will be practiced. No more the ―ultimate fight.‖ Give room to the ―ultimate play.‖ A New man is coming! A new humanity is on the rise. A new world is there to be revealed, so Live and let die old habits and old thoughts. Experiential quality We have been talking briefly about the paradigm of progress, growth, and instrumentalization, and now we will turn to the paradigm of experiential quality, which derives from an active understanding approach. If the first paradigm is a subject of constant growth and narrow task-motoric specialisation, we can now turn to psycho-motoric literacy and versatility where the focus is on the approach to oneself and others (method - process) and not on an advanced given motoric structure (remedy, tool - goal). We are talking about functionality which has no hindrances going beyond tradition, since this is the only way to outgrow the rigid sport-related movement patterns imposed on the bodies. No longer are we interested in sport as an institution that forms the rules of the practice in order to enable standardised circumstances according to which competition is possible. We are now interested in sport not as competition but as playful movement into which we can consciously dive in order to constantly and actively re-approach the movement-game structure by which we allow players to co-create the playful environment according to their abilities and interests. This is the core element of the new play-sport culture, which reflects a socio-ecological principle and is as physical activity of primal interest in education for sustainable living. The active principle, in the case of physical education, further demands that both child and teacher, being planners and co-creators of the play environment, have a well developed practical sense. In such contextualization we do not fall into the trap of cognitivists interpretation of information processing approach of intentional movement, as shown by Moe (2005), since there is simply no need for such understanding, and no meaningful support for intellectualization of the experience in this manner.
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Practical sense Paraphrasing Hocart179 we can say that the time has passed when sport ceased to be just practice. The cognitive capabilities of the human are limited in time and space, subjectively and objectively. We are in the world consciously only to the extent that we are needed in a given moment, that we are engaged, and that is within our power (will). To know might mean to be able to identify or describe and explain something, or to have had the same experience as the one we are trying to understand. Our everyday life is primarily experienced as the place for actual and possible actions, and only secondly as an object of our thoughts. We are now facing the challenge of bridging the gap mentioned, where Bourdieu‘s practical sense might show us a way (2002: 139): There exists the time of science, which is not the time of practice. […] The science is possible only in relation to time, which is contrary to practice. Science wants to overlook time in order to detemporalize practice. The one who is involved in the game, seized within, does not conform to what he sees, but to what he fore-sees (prevoir, sees in advance in directly perceived presence).. It is believed that with the aid of scientific-logical reasoning, based on the principles of formal logic, man will – ever faster and more successfully – change the stock of knowledge of everyday life, a life based primarily on the rules of 'common sense'. Man tends towards the explanation of a practice, its generalisation, ordering, systematisation, and rational explanation. This, however, is already a transition from concrete life to the abstract, from practice to theory, from lived to reflected or to discursive consciousness. And this is exactly the point, we believe, where attention should be placed in order to develop a new theory of sport: the gap between the lived and the reflective and between practice and theory. Regarding this gap, an important paradigmatic change is occurring: scientific positivism is being transformed into, or perhaps more accurately, being replaced by, the science of perspective (Jošt and Hosta, 2004). The prevailing positivistic approach in philosophy of sport is now challenged by the perspectivistic approach, which is taking the existential crisis (humanistic, ecological) as the main starting point of any sport theory and any particular discussion. The very same mechanism is at work in most doping discussions; mainly they are symptoms related and not addressing the structural cause of it, which is rooted in capitalistic order of society and consequential self-destructing behaviour of humans working in competitive sport. With the intention of brief theoretical contextualisation of the development of a new Playness culture we need, among other things, to address the ideological approach of the educator – PE teacher. First, an educator must be aware of his/her political role. Education is in the very core of ideological tools of ruling class. And dealing with the PE especially, the teacher must be aware of its subtle bio-political messages delivered through the sport activity. Second, an educator must be aware of practical sense and its development and implementation. This practical sense consists of pedagogic intuition, which is responsively directed into the future and at the same moment firmly rooted in the presence here and now, in the practice. Pedagogic intuition is conscious of the learning environment, being able to change it according to one‘s will as well. And this very will is in harmony with the will of 179
Hocart in Bourdie (2002: 62): ―It has been for a long time since man stopped just to live, and began to think life.”
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players (children for example), because it is rooted in practical sense, and therefore no projection of the educators‘ perspective onto children is possible. Practical sense enables the educator to grasp the meaning of the play in the childrens‘ way, and therefore to be able to dive into the world of play and finally take the position of the harmonising element, which is needed only to guarantee the safety of the play and to take care that everyone is included. Such practical sense is not worried about the rules neither the principles of the game. This sense is the capacity which enables us to simultaneously, right on the spot, assess the meaning of the situation within the blink of the eye and in the line of fire, and immediately respond. (Bourdie, 2002: 179) And such practical sense is not worried about the signifying/naming of the practice, although many studies of sport and leisure activity in any given population (Ferenčak, 2006) is seeking for the right, the one and only shared interpretation. The key in the assertion of practical pedagogical sense is the emancipation of the new play-sport culture from the institutional dictatorship and authority. Practice demands immediate response, and it is expected that educators possess a sense for childrens‘ play. In sport this would mean that the sportsperson has to play according to the rules of the game, and in our case this means that the rules, if we regard them as only a framework and tool, can be changed instantly and constantly if so needed. The active approach asks of all the partakers (subjects) constant readiness to adopt, adjust, and change technology, remedies, and rules (objects). It is not about setting up the environment first, which would serve us for further orientation. In the sole moment of orientation we simultaneously create an environment from which we orient ourselves. We cannot have one without another, and neither happens before the other. The world of the new play-sport culture is not ready-made and cannot be – as we are used to in our McDonalds society – warmed and digested without any awareness. Our concept presupposes that liberated people enter the relations in a responsible manner, conscious of the fact that the world, even if it is only a world of play, is co-created by everyone. This is the reason d‟être of their responsibility, where actions are taken only when the interests, abilities, and capabilities of others are considered. If this is the base, then the next pedagogical step leads to cooperation and peer-to-peer education for the purpose of helping those who are not yet familiar with the playing environment to fulfil their potential. Namely, the sense of material and social space becomes a matter for everyone, and with the progress of one, the whole benefits as well. If we want a new play-sport culture to truly flourish, then our perception of space, of ourselves, and of movement has to always be set within the context of a common environment which is indivisible and cannot be put together from many abstract elements. If as pedagogues who prepare children for the ―outside‖ world we accept our political responsibilities, then we can say that with the new play-sport culture we influence the change from liberal-individual and atomistic towards the communitarian and holistic perception of the social environment. The environment in which we teach and/or play in the way proposed here has to be understood in terms of habitus. Habitus can be regarded as an organism that has grown out of relations in the group in the certain space and time that this group occupies. Habitus is the materialisation of all such relations, of everything that individuals (subjects and objects) bring into this environment, and historical experiences as well. The structure that we are setting up in the new play-sport culture enables such a habitus where the development of the new sport 109
paradigm is possible. Without hesitation or violence, such a habitus automatically sets aside those elements of the old paradigm which we no longer want to reproduce.
2. PlaynessTM CULTURE New identities and perspectives The power of bodily identity that is by nature primary is manifested in what one learns as a body. This knowledge, according to Bourdie, is not something that one can display for others to see as knowledge, but is what someone actually is. In our habitus this knowledge is transferred from player to player without being raised to the level of discursive reality. Players are mimicking each other. They are not following ideal forms imposed by the scientific modelling that sport science is producing through statistics and biomechanical findings – i.e. reduction of human being to a physical entity. Here players are finding their own way as proposed by the body and emancipatory life-creating will. We are speaking about the natural sense for movement, which in no way can be expressed beyond biomechanical and other biological limitations. For this reason it is characteristic of the new play-sport culture to change the perspective from a subject that uses tools and remedies to one where the same tools and remedies offer the answer to how they will be used and how to handle them efficiently. This is the way of opening into space where tools and other things around us become extensions of our bodies. And with these very extensions of our bodies we create new play-sport worlds where we can experience pre-reflective somatic wisdom and the most intimate, often subconscious, connections with the whole. Flisek recognizes such need for paradigmatic change even in sport industry, where in the field of preschool PE: “...no systematic sport technology standards have yet been established.” (Flisek, 2008) Without such systemic changes of adaptation of the technology (requisites), the somatic communication with the objects is not possible on the level of intimacy explained above. Because such a habitus is of a very fragile nature, and we do not want it to be exposed on a discursive level, we avoid measuring players with a ruler. In the words of the Jewish saying: we measure the one who is dead – for the coffin. As Adorno and Horkheimer (2002) assert, manipulators of the body are those who measure others with the eye of the coffin maker, and are identified when they reveal the result. As a result they label people as long, short, heavy, strong, fat, and so on, and their interest is directed only towards rationalised care for health. Many PE teachers are trapped in this paradigm of complete measuring and care for health, which are certainly the outcomes of their mis-education and the strong cultural influence of the economic-political social order. It is no wonder that a simple walk has become movement, eating has become caloric intake, and sport has become a lifestyle diet like a chemical process of corporal regeneration and consummation of the body. Pisk (2006) has been questioning the meaning of sport and found “that Plato warns us that true value and goodness of sport is not determined by physical dimensions of space and time. The seconds and meters are no more important because true good sport goes beyond these borders since for the true good sport cognition and improvement of self are the most important and even essential.” And for such kind of sport competition is not necessary. Even more, competitions, since the focus is to measure and compare, are counterproductive in order to reach the depth of human logos. Competition requires to be oriented outside of the self, and to subordinate the practice to external criteria. And that philosophy has not only theoretical values, but needs to 110
be actively enforced in practice if we have the right reason to do so, has been recognized by Oftedal (2007). He has also been developing a sport for a new man. The focus, he claims, is to be creative and to free the participants‘ minds so that it is possible to discover new ways of movement.
Now a new playing environment enables us to set up a habitus where there is no room for measuring; we do not measure by the ruler but by the intensity of the creative experience. There is no room for chemical processes of regeneration and re-creation since we talk about deep engagement in play-sport activity. We are released in the world of play and we are present bodily to the extent where all borders are gone, where all subjects and objects become potential extensions of one‘s body in a way in which everything becomes one huge relation – a responsible relation of oneness/community/habitus. One of the aims of education is that the player is actively released in relation with him/herself and others, and is aware of its role within the whole exactly through the sense for the whole. We believe that this is the way to awake the ecological code of sustainability (it is already in the body by its nature, but is often overridden by the noisy culture of competition, consumerism and total instrumentalization). This code connects all apparently individual parts into one relation, and set up all relations and relationships with the whole. What we are looking for is the play, where through travelling into inner world of human being, we awaken the wisdom of the body; we release the purest natural humane forces and create the new world of play, which is liberating not only the playing being, but has also liberating consequences on the existed social order as well. Such play is not yet a political act per se, since the ability to recognize the ideological restraints and awaken emancipatory will is necessary. Primacy of movement is a basic principle that is present everywhere and has no known limitation. We can actually find movement in every solid rock, not to mention the fast movement of thoughts. We propose that this is the manner in which we approach and also understand our being and acting. The limits of our bodies are not equal to the limits of skin or clothes we wear. Our bodies are extending in space and minds. In a new playness culture we choose to think in the terms of having an inner and outer body. The inner body is the one usually regarded as our own body, our flesh and bones literally being limited by skin. This body is a specific form that has crucial meaning for our being. An outer body is everything else around us. This is the only way to be at ease with the whole and accept the responsibility that is within our power. That brings us to the approach guided by the world-outlook offered by Maitland (1995: p.29): “The limits of my body are not limitations where I cease to exist. These are only limitations at which I begin to be.” The other way of getting towards the new play-sport culture, the first one being the emancipatory will of Simonović, is offered by Sheets-Johnstone (1999) kinetic attunement. She argues that the kinetic bodily logos is an instinctive disposition that every animate forms of life poses, and is directed towards intelligent action. She also recognizes that very emancipatory power, though not explicitly placing the value upon (1999: 517): “[...] we easily lose sight of movement and of our fundamental capacity to think in movement.” This sole ability to think in movement, to think through movement, and to think movement should be enough to create the new play-sport culture, but it is not so, unfortunately. That is why we 111
need to recognize the political challenges and reasons for social action of philosophers. It is our primal kinetic wisdom that is lost in competitive sport as practiced today. Our humanness is therefore questioned. Unfortunately, Sheets-Johnstone does not recognize, although she is intuitively very close to the turning point of life-paradigm, where the primal kinetic form as basic pattern is replaced by common consciousness, which is placed outside of time and space. Indeed, such groundbreaking metaphysical turn is already on the rise in physics, and the sooner the philosophers will recognize that we are all quantum objects as well, the powerful and meaningful our thoughts will be. Play as trust in life A key point for Playness culture to flourish is therefore trust: trust in oneself and others to the point where we can be relaxed and playfully released into co-creation of the play environment. This way we allow our bodies to intuitively suggest how to learn new movements and how to constantly and responsibly set up the relations of the whole. We enable players, remedies, or tools to become our second natures, and so open ourselves to oneness. There is no place for division of body and mind, no place for awareness that sets up these opposites. It is about awareness of self and the environment in which we are present and which we create. This is awareness of the relation, which is always ethically rooted in the context of the whole. Care for the whole is finally providing us with substantial ethical ground in the new play-sport culture. And this care, derived from the love of life, is nothing else than the existent existential concerns of socio-ecological orientation in the globalised world. It is indeed like Dunja and Ljubodrag Simonović (2007: p.255) are saying, when arguing for the libertarian physical culture: “Aspiring towards genuine play is not a theoretical project, but an issue of concrete political struggle. [...] instead of the tendency towards escapism and „distraction‟, the key motive should be man‟s life-creating necessity for another human being.” There is no way out. No view from nowhere. We have to take a stand, and then act according to it. Nothing is more damaging to our situation then the recognition of the catastrophic circumstances not being acted upon because of our parasitic drives, and fear from being free at last. If we believe what physics has already proven time and again, that there is also a world beyond the speed of light, beyond time and space as we know it, beyond locality of our bodies and atoms, then we have a long way to go in quest for the human ―know thyself‖ ideal. In sport competitions the ideology of positive materialism - a prison of space and time - is reproduced over and over again, followed by numerous misplaced philosophical discussions about the true nature of it. And exactly in sport, the need for the paradigmatic change is reaching the turning point. In quantum physics the material world is just one of the potentials of the creative energy, just a wave possibility, which obviously we took as our only reality. Let it not be so. Let‘s think about it in holographic terms. Let‘s leave some things open in order to give numerous potentials the option of becoming our new realities, new worlds. Consciousness, through animate form of energy, creates our actuality, which is all but definite. And this consciousness, which is the being and the becoming, provides us with holographic pattern throughout everything and everybody. Accepting or living the Universe as a hologram gives us the strength and belief that aspiration towards paradigmatic change will see the light for sure. It is not the most strikingly that to most of the people this ideas will 112
make no sense – the fact that the Earth is round made no sense to our ancestors either (it was normally perceived as flat ages ago, and still today looks like flat) – but that the science is playing the conservative role that use to belong to church in medieval ages. Just take a look into the field of sport science from such position of totality/universality – deterministic, materialistic, and mechanistic; in a word flat reductionistic. What a challenge lies in front of us philosophers to convince them that this is only a small part out of all possibilities of energy manifestation that is free from time and space restraints. How do we face them with the fact that matter arises from consciousness? How do we face them with the fact that they are supporting the life-destructive and not life-creating pattern? Are they aware of intimate interconnection of everything on a subtle non-local level? Are we aware of it? My brother philosophers, why so soft then!? A New man, and not the Ultimate (hopefully), is coming! And a New philosopher is coming! An activist! A constitutive member, not representative, not intellectualist neither reflectionist from falsely recognized so called ―safe‖ distance. Imagine the life of those who took safe distance from life!?
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16. Moe. F.M. ―A Philosophical Criticique of Classical Cognitivism in Sport: From Information Processing to Bodily Background Knowledge‖ Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 2005, XXXII, 155-183. 17. Morgan, W. J. Leftist Theories of Sport: A Critique and Reconstruction. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994. 18. Nietzsche, F. Tako je govoril Zaratustra. [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1999. 19. Oftedal. B. M.: Art of Movement – a Movement Revolution? In: Movement – the Art of Life Ш. Prague: Charles University in Prague: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, 2007, p. 76-86 20. Osho, B. S. Rajneesh. Zarathustra; A God that can Dance. Cologne: Rebel Publishing, 1987 21. Pisk, J. What is Good Sport: the Plato's view. In: Acta universitatis Palackianae Olomucenisis Gymnica, 2006, vol. 36, no 2. Olomouc., pp. 67-72. 22. Sheet-Johnstone, M. The Primacy of Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 1999. 23. Simonović, L. Sport, kapitalizam, destrukcija. [Sport, Capitalism, Destruction] Beograd: Lorka, 1995. 24. Simonović, D. and Simonović L. A New World is Possible. Beograd: Published by authors, 2007 25. Sloterdijk, P. Evrotaoizem. [Eurotaoism] Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2000 26. Torres, C.R. and Hager, F.P. ―De-emphasizing Competition in Organized Youth Sport: Misdirected Reforms and Mislead Children.‖ Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 2007, XXXIV, 194-210.
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RELIGION, MYTH AND SPORT
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TOURISM AND SACRUM Jerzy Kosiewicz University of Physical Education in Warsaw
Abstract Regardless from the fact if free time is considered from a religious or a non-religious viewpoint, it is possible to proclaim that there are two kinds of possible relations between tourism and sacrum: 1. Concerning wandering, which can have, firstly, strictly religious (that is: pilgrimage) character and, secondly, non-religious, cultural character connected with studying religion. 2. Connected with reception of nature during outdoor tourist wandering. Those experiences can have threefold qualities: parareligious, nonreligious and religious ones. That type of sacral experiences of spontaneous qualities appear solely because of direct influences of nature and not under the influence of man‘s works and religious objects which have been appointed by him and which are approved by a given community. A proper example in that respect is constituted by Tatra and sea travels of Mariusz Zaruski – a Polish seafarer and mountaineer from the turn of the 19th and the 20th century. In his considerations on tourism he refers to the simplest solutions characteristic for general assumptions of Hellenistic philosophy of nature. It concerns, among other things, Pythagorean harmony and Heraclitean mind of the world as well as hylozoism or animism of Ionic philosophers of nature, which obviously stem from superficial empirical cognitions, perceptions and observations of nature; from the simplest (from the present viewpoint) explanations of inductive and intuitive character. I. Free time and religion While considering relations which can take place between tourism and sacrum, some attention should be paid to the issue of free time underlying those relations. In that context we may refer to the Old Testament records from the viewpoint of independent biblical studies. Thus, it is a source where not only encouragement of rest in time free of work, but a commandment to rest appears. S. Kowalczyk, while writing on that subject, proclaims that the Bible points out that man has been appointed to responsible activity, to ―cultivation‖ of earth – that is, to cognition and improvement of the surrounding world. But although work is the basic man‘s duty, he has also a right to rest. Taking into account that God ―rested‖ after the act of creation of the world, man also should rest after the working week. That commandment, establishing simultaneously a right to have free time, does not exclude any forms of active rest – including activity of tourist character (similarly as other forms of movement recreation an sport for all) – since it emphasises a festive character of free time making it different from profanum (that is, from activity connected with everyday work).1 To the abovementioned, theogonical and cosmogonical, genesis of rest it can be also added that biblical anthropology includes a clear apotheosis of free time completely independent from any work. Free time - and connected continuous feasting – are characteristic (till the time of driving the first people out) for proto-historical paradise time. It 1
Kowalczyk S., Elementy filozofii i teologii sportu (Elements of Philosophy and Theology of Sport), Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2002, p. 175.
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appears, however, from that anthropology that rest underlies human existence. Continuous feasting, enjoying free time in various ways, were interrupted by the historical period – by the mankind‘s coming into history (caused by breaking the covenant). That period is characterised by creation of earthly civilisation and culture, by continuous work which – according to God‘s order – has to be discontinued with rest constituting an image of his behaviour in the cosmogonical process. The reward for proper behaviour, according to soteriological assumptions (soteriology – the theory of salvation), is heavenly salvation, which – unlike the existence in paradise - is characterised by continuous eternal rest. Thus, it comes from the Christian anthropology that the human existence – both in the proto-historical and the historical time – is underlain by rest. It constitutes also a reward for a decent life, a breather after hardships of the mundane life. Free time and movement recreation which is connected with it – active or passive rest – are marked with a stigma of divine religious sanctity. That free time may, however, be filled with various forms of tourism. Independently from the fact if free time is considered by us from the Christian or a non-religious viewpoint, it is possible to proclaim that there are two kinds of possible relations between tourism and sacrum: 1. Concerning wandering, which can have, firstly, strictly religious (that is: pilgrimage) character and, secondly, non-religious, cultural character connected with studying religion. 2. Connected with reception of nature during outdoor tourist wandering. Those experiences can have threefold qualities: parareligious, nonreligious and religious ones. That type of sacral experiences of spontaneous qualities appear solely because of direct influences of nature and not under the influence of man‘s works and religious objects which have been appointed by him and which are approved by a given community. A proper example in that respect is constituted by Tatra and sea travels of Mariusz Zaruski – a Polish seafarer and mountaineer from the turn of the 19th and the 20th century. II. Nature – axiologisation and aestheticisation The second kind of relations between tourism and sacrum is connected with axiologisation – that is, with attributing nature with various kinds of values, including aesthetic ones (it refers to the aesthetics of reality), which can be considered in terms of sanctity or sacral art. Thus in the first case it would be about beauty as a manifestation of creative activity of the nonreligious and religious Absolute, on condition (if such an assumption have been made) that only the Absolute – thanks to his supernatural power – could create so sublime and refined forms of perfect and terrifying natural beauty arising admiration and fear. The second case refers, on the other hand, to the association between that what is authentic and natural concerning its identity with that what is an artistic or architectonic product. That is why it is possible to expose the connection between that what belongs strictly to nature – and has supernatural and natural genesis – and that what is associated with strictly human artistic activity in the field of sacral art. While developing the abovementioned synthetic considerations, it is possible to state that tourist peregrinations arise inter alia feelings of an aesthetics character concerning mountains, forests, meadows, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, seas and oceans. What we perceive in them is non-formal and inborn – situated beyond any artistic convention – spontaneous and directly felt beauty. In connection with this, a phenomenon of aestheticisation (constituting one of multiple forms of axiologisation) takes place. It consists in attributing natural facts with particular values. It starts from spontaneous experiencing of the world of nature, where 117
emotions and intellectual factors are insolubly interwoven with this what is brought by sensual perceptions. These perceptions belong to the area the aesthetics of reality – that is the aesthetics which isn‘t connected with human creations - is interested in. Apart from that, tourist experiences are often accompanied by another form of the aestheticisation of reality. Its results permit us to achieve a paraartistically structured picture. In connection with this, perceived fragments of nature are attributed with artistic qualities as a result of applying artistic categories for their description and for ideography of recipients‘ sensations. It is connected with finding of some way of putting things in order, which starts to function as obvious and universal. Accomplished aestheticisation acquires qualities of objectivity and inter-subjectivity – similarly as an artwork.2 In connection with this, nature is compared to human creations of a material character. It is presented e.g. in categories of architectonic art. Zaruski, for example, associates some mountains, soaring peaks, ridges or Tatra mountain caves with columns, arcs and vaults of temples – especially of Gothic churches.3
III. Sacralisation of nature The abovementioned aestheticisation leads as a consequence to further axiologisation of nature, which takes a form of progressing sacralisation of mountains. It is enabled by the correspondence of aesthetics and sacral values. Mountains and their particular fragments become saturated with festive supernatural values of a religious and non-religious character. First, they become attributed with architectonic qualities being characteristic for a work of art; second – with features connected with a place of worship, such as a church, a pagan shrine or a synagogue. Aesthetics properties and those connected with sanctity not only correspond ones with others but they unite themselves into a unity called sacral art. In connection with this, it is assumed from one viewpoint that a given object may be a dwelling-place of a ghost or a deity of a non-religious nature, when sacrum has only a philosophical character (e.g. Arch-Four in the conceptions of Pythagoreans, Demiurge in Plato‘s considerations or First Mover-First Cause in Aristotle‘s metaphysics; while from the other it is maintained that it constitutes a residence of God or a deity of strictly religious qualities. Sacralisation of mountains, being present in Zaruski‘s opinions, alternately takes a pantheist and a panetheist form. The consequential incoherence results mainly from the fact that the great Zakopane dweller couldn‘t categorise these forms and distinguish their qualities, since they constituted for him the shapes of one and the same sacrum, manifold but complementary. On the one hand, Zaruski points out that the Tatras, which are characterised by a charm of a temple, are a dwelling-place of an unknown deity,4 that they a shelter of a spirit as the active principle and the harmony of nature.5 Thus he presents opinions of a pantheist character pointing out that an unknown deity and a spirit – that is: absolute beings – dissolve and exhaust themselves in nature, that they are not present beyond or above it. This point of view is similar to the conceptions of Xenophanes or 2
See: M. Gołaszew2ska, Rzeczywistość w sytuacji paraartystycznej (Reality in a Paraartistic Situation), (in:)Estetyka rzeczywistości (The Aesthetics of Reality), Warszawa 1984, pp. 234-250. 3 Z. Krawczyk, Natura, kultura, sport (Nature, Culture, Sport), Warszawa 1970, p. 119. I would like to explain that the Tatra Mountains constitute the highest Massie of Carpathian. They are placed on the border of Poland and Slovakia, standing out from surrounding valleys. 4 M. Zaruski, Powrót (The Return), (in:) Na bezdrożach tatrzańskich. Wycieczki, wrażenia i opisy (In Tatra Wilderness. Excursions, Sensations and Descriptions), Warszawa 1958, pp. 16-17. 5 M. Zaruski, Nowa grota w Giewoncie (A New Cave in Giewont), (in:) op. cit.
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Schopenhauer. In this sense, it is different form theopanthism, which assumes that God is everything. On the other hand, Zaruski proclaims elsewhere opinions of a panetheist character while writing that ―Spirit of the Mountains floats above this eagles‘ country‖.6 Thus, although this spirit sacralises the mountains – inhabits them, saturates them with his personality – he doesn‘t exhaust himself in this form of activity, doesn‘t lose his own autonomy. He exists both in nature and beyond it. He exists only as Spirit of the Tatras – above them and not beyond them. He is connected solely with ―the eagles‘ country‖ of the Tatras and ―jealously protects its treasures‖.7 We are under the impression that the Tatras consequentially possess not only natural but also supernatural properties, that we are in contact with a divine being who, because of eternity, immensity and dangerous uncontrollable power which emanate from it, arouses awe, trembling and – such as in Sören Kierkegaard‘s8 and Rudolf Otto‘s9 conceptions of God - a fear of unknown. The sacralisation of nature of a panetheist character is similar to the theist views of Giordano Bruno, who was of an opinion that God dwells in all beings – both those which, from our point of view, are organic and non-organic – since each, even the smallest, particle of dust is equipped with its own soul.10 Thus he creates the conception of the world of panpsychological and pan-organic character. This point of view is also close to Zaruski, who is of an opinion that nature in general, and especially mountain nature, has its own soul. And if nature has its own soul, it means that nature – especially mountain and particularly Tatra nature – lives and constitutes an organic being possessing its own psychological qualities. Panetheism manifests itself also in the views of a protestant thinker, philosopher and theologian, Jorgen Moltman, who was of an opinion that Holy Spirit saturates with himself all nature, both cosmos and man. He argues that influencing negatively natural environment means opposing Holy Spirit, that is God. He points also out that influencing destructively man, his soul and body, means opposing a divine person too. However, neither God taken as the Trinity, nor none of his persons exhausts himself in cosmos and man. He is present also beyond nature, transcends the world, exists independently from it as a fully autonomous being which saturates with himself all his creatures. The issue of sacralisation of the Tatras can be considered also from the viewpoint of Letter to Corinthians by Paul from Tarsus. He admonishes there dwellers of Corinth in the following way: ―Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?‖ (1 Cor. 6,19). Thus he points out the special qualities of the human body. Zaruski sacralises the Tatras in a similar way when he proclaims – as it was written above – that they possess a charm of a temple where a deity dwells. Sacralisation in the statement by Paul from Tarsus. has a religious character, while in the case of Zaruski we have to do with secular, non-religious sacralisation. This sacralisation becomes even deeper when Zaruski attributes with a temple character not only particular caves, couloirs, peaks or mountains but all the Tatras. According to his opinion, they constitute as a whole a place, architecture, space of a sacral nature. The structure of the Tatras together with all its natural elements are saturated with exceptional and sacral (in 6
M. Zaruski, Organizacja Tatrzańskiego Ochotniczego Pogotowia Ratunkowego (Organising the Tatra Voluntary Rescue Sernice), (in:) op. cit. 7 Ibid. 8 See: S. Kierkegaard, Bojaźń i drżenie. Choroba na śmierć (Ankiety and Trembling. Mortal Illness), Warszawa 1982. 9 See: R. Otto, Świętość (The Idea of the Holy), Warszawa 1968. 10 M. Zaruski, Organizacja…
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contrast with profane) values. Zaruski proclaims that the Tatras as a whole are a temple. It is an exceptional and unique temple. ―There is one earth‖ – writes Zaruski – ―one sun and one Tatra shrine in Poland‖.11 IV. The animisation of nature Attributing the Tatras with divine qualities of the absolute has also animistic features. It is another form of their sacralisation. Animism points out to the possibility of the existence of non-material souls being able to self-sufficient existence, who animates all elements of cosmos and nature, who wander and incarnate themselves into various material forms. According to E. B. Taylor, the spirits of nature (with the spirits of mountains among them) in course of time became the prototypes of gods. There is animism in its pure form in Zaruski‘s works. First, when he announces that ―Nature in general, and especially mountain nature, has its own soul‖. Second, when he points out that the spirit of the mountains ―floats above this eagles‘ country. Third, when he proclaims that ―an unknown deity‖ lives in the Tatras and saturates them with himself. The transformation of this spirit into deity also takes place, which can be recognised – according to Taylor‘s conceptions – as evolving of the idea of sacralisation (as it is presented by Zaruski) towards creating of the prototype of the god of the mountains. It refers to the transformation of a transcendental being into a being of a transcendent character,12 that is the transformation of something supernatural and absolute in a wide non-confessional sense into an ideal being of a strictly religious character, which influences positively a tourist who is affected by it. While travelling, wandering through great spaces – both in mountains as on seas and oceans – it is possible to find that ―the absolute perfection manifests itself on far horizons. It‘s an inconceivable being: God, Osiris, Adonai, Brahma and Allah – these are synonyms of one and the same notion‖.13 The consciousness of supernatural beings – both of a non-religious and religious characters – enables a wanderer to overcome various ailments connected with social and individual life. It influences compensatory on the level of interpersonal relations since it strengthens a vertical tie with the absolute, especially in case of believers. V. Hylozoism – towards the philosophy of mountains The spiritualisation, animisation of mountains is closely connected with ancient (e.g. Ionic philosophers of nature, Plato), Renaissance or Enlightenment forms of hylozoism, since it assumes that all matter is animate, spiritualised and moving. Zaruski is also an adherent of this opinion. He perceives the symptoms of hylozoism in the Tatras writing on them that ―in spite of the apparent lifelessness of walls and couloirs, this world lives a separate life‖. 14 He treats the Tatra microcosm as a living organism. It is a way of understanding nature which was characteristic, inter alia, for Tales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, 11
M. Zaruski, Sonety taternickie (Sonnets of a Tatra Climber), (in:) op. cit. That transcendental – and, at the same time, ideal – being is conceived by me as a supernatural being of divine (and hence, in a sense, sacral) qualities, but without any connections with religion, while the ―transcendent‖ is understood by me as an absolute sacral being, marked with divinity, originating from religious assumptions (dogmas) and, hence, of religious, denominational provenance. In order to distinguish a purely philosophical and nondenominational ideal being from the notion of a divine being of a denominational origin – that is: two forms of beings placed beyond the world of nature or possessing different absolute qualities in their relation to the phenomenal world – the notions differentiating these forms of beings were introduced. One of them was called a transcendental being, the other – a transcendent being. 13 M. Zaruski, Z harcerzami na „Zawiszy Czarnym‖ (With Scouts on „Zawisza Czarny‖), Warszawa 1958, p. 65. 14 Ibid. 12
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Democritus, who were called by Aristotle the first physiologists (persons describing and explaining functioning of living beings). Zaruski – from this peripatetic point of view, also can be regarded as a physiologist since he maintains that mountains ―live a separate life – severe as granite of peaks, as crystal clear water of streams‖.15 He distinguished within this hylozoist vision of the world two orders – the order of nature and the human order. The first is treated and admired by him as the higher order, possessing qualities of the Heraclitean mind of the world, which causes that all nature lives in an orderly, cyclical, perfect way. These mechanisms regulating the life of nature and their rationality result from its sacral, animistic properties. The foundation of this order of mountains, lands, seas and oceans was constituted by a soul, a spirit and a deity establishing ―A magnificent (...) arrangements of powers regulating the life of the universe‖.16 Zaruski, emphasising value of nature, wrote also that ―The secrets of oceans haven‘t been researched yet, but they testify to the – inconceivable for us - perfection of the world, whose phenomena, even those negative from our viewpoint, are nothing else than harmonious supplements of the entirety.17 The Heraclitean order, founded on a rational cosmic power, a purposeful causative factor distinguished from human reason, strengthened the idea of the Pythagorean harmony of a cosmological character. Thus it widened the philosophical base of the reflection on the properties of nature. It implicitly referred to the Heraclitean conception of a transcendent indefinite causative force influencing all nature. It referred also to Pythagorean dualism, which constituted the foundations of the harmony of the material world. It assumed that numbers restricted, shaped and regulated the functions of nature in a harmonious way. Concluding his experiences connected with sea travels, Zaruski proclaimed that ―Here, on this small scrap of a small globe we live on, the unmatched Pythagorean harmony of spheres is fully expressed‖.18 He perceived manifestations of holistic, cosmic harmony everywhere. He was experiencing it during his wandering, being conscious that it concerns both the ―small scrap of the small globe‖ as well as ―black space sprinkled with millions of worlds‖.19 That belief, accompanying Zaruski while he was formulating the abovementioned statements, that over the universe there is some supernatural harmonious order, some organising cosmic power, the Heraclitean mind of the world, the transcendental causative power having qualities of the Pythagorean Arch-Four, proves also that Zaruski associated nature with non-religious forms of sanctity too. They were to exist beyond nature accessible for human cognition, but they were to influence it and to introduce order – that is, using a Pythagorean term – cosmos into the universe. Considering the example of Zaruski‘s views, it is possible to conclude that reflective and philosophising wanderers travelling various outdoor routes perceive nature in threefold connections with nature – namely, in its religious, parareligious and nonreligious relations. They come to it by axiologisation consisting in attributing various values to cognised nature. They are results of spontaneous and premeditate actions in the fields of aestheticisation and sacralisation having qualities of pantheism, panetheism, theopanthism, transcendentality and transcendence,20 hylozoism and animism of panpsychic and panorganic character. 15
Ibid. Ibid., p. 116. 17 Ibid., pp. 40-41, 105. 18 Ibid., p. 65. 19 Ibid. 20 There is a view painting out that the notion of „transcendental being‖ refers only to universals, to Kantian idealism and to the phenomenological method. I do not agree with that opinion and because of this I will explain why I do not think so and how I understand expressions ―transcendental‖ and ―transcendent‖. The conception of universals – that is, of abstract objects existing independently from the human mind, which can intuitively discover them, but which cannot create them – refers, first of all, to Plato‘s views. Ideas, according to his interpretation – were, among others, types, subtypes, classes of material, organic beings (Plato was a hylozoist). 16
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Thus – similarly as the Demiurge - they were to exist externally – that is, transcendentally – in their relation to the world of nature. It refers also to Aristotle‘s First Mover, who also exists externally – that is, transcendentally – in his relation to nature. Nota bene, if the notion of the transcendental being is connected with Plato and Aristotle (a moderate realism), it is connected also with pre-Platonic Hellenic – Pythagorean or Orphic - thought because of reasons which are obvious not only for Adam Krokiewicz. Pythagorean numbers, which were to shape and limit matter, to be closely connected with it and to give it quantitative and qualitative properties, were associated not only by Aristotle with the notion of the form which had been introduced by him. It is possible to come to a conclusion, based not only on the abovementioned grounds, that the roots of Plato‘s realism and of moderate realism included in Aristotle‘ s ontology reach at least as deep as to Pythagoreans. Since Platonic and neo-Platonic philosophy, as well as Orphic thought, penetrated in a modified form into early Christianity, the Middle Ages and the whole Western (and not only Western) philosophy, the problem of the transcendental being became common, went beyond the range of issues connected with universals and became the basic issue of ontology and especially of ontological dualism assuming the existence of the material (phenomenal, sensual, physical, natural) world and the ideal, supernatural world. That is why the notion of the transcendental being is used not only to describe one stand in the dispute over universals in classical – medieval and mathematical (presented by W.V.O. Quine in his work ―From Logical Point of View‖) – form, and not only to describe a being which is external in its relation to another one, but also to name a supernatural, subnatural, ideal, spiritual, absolute, divine being. That ideal being is understood in the philosophical tradition at least in two ways: as a supernatural being of divine (and hence, in some sense, sacral) qualities, but without any connections with religion, and as an absolute sacral being marked with sanctity and deriving from religious assumptions (dogmas) – hence, of religious, denominational provenance. The first of them is called here the transcendental being and the second the transcendent one. Nota bene in philosophy – similarly as in other humanities and not only there – there are no definitely formed definitions of terms and notions and there will never be. It refers also to the very notion of philosophy which has so many interpretations as there have been proposals put forward by significant experts in the field. The notion of the transcendental being has been widespread so far that it penetrated also into Kant‘s philosophy – not only to his idealism (I would rather say: to his ontological dualism, since idealism can also have a monistic form), but also to his method, which has been described as the transcendental method, and especially to the critique of the mind including transcendental aesthetics, analytics and dialectics. The conception of transcendentalism underlies not only ―Critique of Pure Reason‖, but also ―Critique of Practical Reason‖ (―Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals‖) or ―Critique of Judgment‖. The noumenal world – that is, the world of things in themselves, the world of pure intelligences, exists outside of the world of nature, outside of the phenomenal world. It is external – that is, transcendental - in its relation to the material being. It is indubitable. However, the situation changes considerably in the last period of Kant‘s writing activity – that is, in the mystical period. Then that what had been transcendental and had not been associated with religion assumed a religious form. The notion of God as a purely philosophical being changed its meaning. It assumed a form of a religious or parareligious God – that is, of a transcendent being. In the case of Kant‘s philosophy (but not only there), that philosophical distinction – that is, the distinction between that what is transcendental and that what is transcendent – turns out to be useful. Nota bene in the world of philosophy – and generally in the humanities – meaning of terms changes and their new or modified definitions are given. In order to change the meaning of a term or of a notion it is enough to formulate a proper – in a content-related and formal sense – context of justification for their new interpretation. For example, ontological idealism is differently presented by Plato and Hegel and each time it is done genially. The fact that the notion of transcendentalism or of the transcendental being is not reserved for considerations on universals and Kant‘s philosophy or for the phenomenological method is testified also by an already classic statement by Leszek Kołakowski, which comes from the sixties and is included in ―Kultura i fetysze‖ (―Culture and Fetishes‖), in the chapter entitled ―Zakresowe i funkcjonalne rozumienie filozofii‖ (―Range-Related and Functional Understanding of Philosophy‖). Thus, he presents there, among other things, a transcendental understanding of philosophy referring first of all to E. Husserl (that is, to phenomenology) and to the philosophy of Descartes, who, while initiating modern rationalism, did not suspect – what is obvious – that such an extremely important philosophical trend as phenomenology would come into being. Kołakowski describes Descartes‘ philosophy and Husserl‘s phenomenology (in spite of many obvious differences between them) as philosophies transcendental in their relation – to put it in a simplifying way – to the existing scientific and philosophical tradition. Hence, a new philosophy as a being is external – that is, transcendental.
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The abovementioned examination of issues connected with tourism which were implicitly or explicitly dealt with by Zaruski can lead to an opinion that his humane reflections concerning nature contain a philosophy of nature – and especially a philosophy of mountains and philosophy of the sea – which, although not professional, is relatively sophisticated and modern. But reality is quite different. Zaruski refers to the simplest solutions characteristic for general assumptions of Hellenistic philosophy of nature. It concerns, among other things, Pythagorean harmony and Heraclitean mind of the world as well as hylozoism or animism of Ionic philosophers of nature, which obviously stem from superficial empirical cognitions, perceptions and observations of nature; from the simplest - from the present viewpoint explanations of inductive and intuitive character.
Thus, that interpretation goes beyond phenomenology. It refers also to Descartes and to his philosophy in general as one of its definitions; that is, definitions of the being of philosophy, of the genesis and ontology of philosophy. The transcendental interpretation can be deepened – what is not done by Kołakowski – by Hegel‘s views. The latter was of an opinion that both consciousness, individual self-knowledge, and social selfknowledge are given from the outside by the Absolute. It refers, among other things, to ideas of the state, religion, art and philosophy as the highest form of the Absolute‘s self-realisation and self-affirmation. Thus, philosophy – according to Hegel‘s opinion – has a transcendental character in a source-related and evolutional sense and is a transcendental being in its relation to the human subject. Using a distinction between that what is ―transcendental‖ and that what is ―transcendent‖, which is applied not only by me, we can remark that, for example, philosophy according to Aurelius Augustine‘s interpretation can – because of its genesis – be treated as knowledge given from the outside by Christian God by the way of illumination. According to the abovementioned distinction, we have to do there with the philosophy coming from the outside, given by God – that is, with a transcendent interpretation. There are two reasons why I do not agree with an opinion that the ―transcendental‖ has a metaphysical character only if referred to universals. Firstly, I remember that the ―transcendental‖ is connected only with one stand in the dispute over universals – namely, with realism – and not with conceptualism and nominalism (if we take into account only three main stands of both the medieval dispute over universals and of a contemporary debate about universals in mathematics). Secondly, it is just Kant‘s idealism – and especially ontological considerations – which are connected with that what is transcendental and transcendent according to a metaphysical interpretation, since the whole noumenal world is metaphysical in its relation to the phenomenal world (nature). The noumenal world is the world of things in themselves, of pure intelligences and, hence, of metaphysical beings. That is the basis of, inter alia, ―The Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals‖ and the grounds for mathematical theorems, that is – according to Kant‘s opinion – a priori judgments which are always universal and necessary. Their grounds have a metaphysical character, which simultaneously is obviously transcendental and – in the period of mystical Kant‘s orientation – transcendent.
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SPORT MYTHS AND THE MODERN IDEOLOGY OF SPORTS Radim Šíp Faculty of Sport Sciences, Brno
1. Sports Myths (prologue) When I started to meet the notion kalokagathia in my professional life, I perceived for the first time that I stepped into a field which is fully governed by a myth. While I didn't hear about this concept when I was an active sportsman (I was a football player), when I have started to teach at our Faculty of Sports Studies in Brno I have met it absolutely everywhere. Permanentaly I am hearing "…kalokagathia: a harmonious mind and body developmen…" and so on. However, the ways of articulation of this truism aroused my suspicion. So, I began to trace the historical and philosophical conditions of this concept in 5th and 4th centuries BC and the life and the changes of this concept in the time span from 18th century up to the 20th century AD. I was struck by my findings. I will back to them in detail in the fourth section of my lecture. Now let me turn to another example of myth-working in the field of sports. Recently I happened to bump into the book The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics written by philologist David C. Young. During his work about ancient Olympic Games which was initially led by him in the standard approach, he met some inaccuracies in 19th century‘s canonical translations of important ancient texts. These inappropriate translations went hand in hand with the false datings of some so called "negative features of Olympics". Therefore, the distintinction between "the Olympic Games' gold time" and "the degenerated days of Olympics" seems not ot be found in ancient history, but rather create by the people like Gardner, Gardiner, Shorey, Harris. They repeated – one after another – the same incorrect translations of ancient sources and the same wrong datings of "negative features" (Cf. Young, 1984, pp. 7–103.) These all circumstances created completely distorted picture not only of the Greek sports, but also distorted picture of ancient Greece at all. As we will see in the fifth section, both myths are the portions of whole body of myths that have formed our occidental selfunderstanding for the last three hundred years.
2. The significance and the functions of a myth I do not want to be a myth-wrecker, so I hasten to note that, in my view, myth is the very important sociological, psychological, and epistemological concept and that there is no piece of experience or knowledge which would not be founded or rooted in some organizing scheme provided by some myth. To explain it I am using the work of the recent well-known religion specialist Russell T. McCutcheon. He elaborated the entry "Myth" for the Guide to the Study of Religion. There he distinguished seven general conceptions of this word – starting from a conception of myth as a pre-scientific explanations of our world, continuing through tales of heroes, or explanation of collective unconsciousness leading up to a conception of myth as a hidden truth (Mc Cutcheon, 2000, pp. 193–197). After this listing he shed critical light upon the conceptions and then he showed their inadequacy. Finally, he tried to characterize myth in a more appropriate way which would respect all approaches and, at the same time, eliminated circular definitions of myths. To conclude his effort he set the new definition. According to him myths:
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1. are ordinary means of fashioning and authorizing the lived-in and believedin "worlds"; 2. create this rather than social identity; and 3. are used by people to legitimize their own self-image. (Cf. Mc Cutcheon, 2000, p. 200.) We can hopefully outline these characterizations in a simpler way. We can understand myth as a basic system of orientation in world. This characterization is taken from Waardenburg's book Gods from near and in this book the characterization was related to religion only. However, I am confident that what religion has in common with every our belief which structured our approaches to world is based on some myth. So, according my theory, a myth is common denominator of either religion or for example theory of truth or theory of the best polity. This shift from ussual senses of myth to our new conception as a system of orientation in world prevents restricting it to some of its manifestations. It prevents restricting our conception of myth to its religious dimension only, or to its social dimension only etc. So, we are provided with the conception of myth as a body of narrative, ritual, epistemological means (or presuppositions) that determines how we can handle our experience or more precisely, how we can classify and use experience to envisage complication and to resolve problem situations.
3. Myth in my usage There is one important question which is posed by my critics. They ask me why I use the word "myth" instead of other more appropriate words, for example "axiom" or "presupposition" or "starting point". The question is very clever because the critics hint at a problem of the old usage of the word which can confuse us. If we put away the word "myth", we would not be confused by the old weight of this word anymore (for example, pre-scientific explanations of our world or tales of heroes, explanation of collective unconsciousness etc). In spite of that I think it is worth employing this word, since all the seven senses of this word that McCutcheon listed include the trace of meaning which we can express roughly by the assertions: Myths govern human life or myths rule human life or myths impact on human life. I just felt temptation to use the sentece "myth seduces people", but I didn't write it. The verb "seduce" means that somebody using this verb know very well the right way and that is why he can say me: "Look, you was seduced from the truth, from the right way." I think this type of sentences is a very good tool by which we can express our deep belief. However, nothing in human experience and in human language can play the role of the eternal truth-maker. The issue of truth is not so easy. For example, when I am said by the great Czech philosophers and logicians – Materna and Kolář – that I am seduced from the right way because I don't believe in the correspondence theory of truth, I think contrary: Materna and Kolář are seduced from the right way, because they don't believe in pragmatic theory of truth. The correspondence theory of truth is based on a very simple vision that we can set a meaning of a sentence (or a meaning of a sentences' complex) to a respective portion of world and then we can weigh up accuracy between them. On the other hand the pragmatic theory of truth grows out of the picture in which a meaning of an assertion plays the role of a tool by which we can do thing which we need to or want to do. Although I am on the side of the pragmatic theory, I have to confess that there is not any "rational" or "intelectual"180 instrument in hand that can help us to know which of these two theories is true. (Perhaps, 180
I used these words here in traditional rationalist way. In the pragmatic literature the words are treated differently. For example, an inteligent act is the act which lead humans to intended or needed goal. It is not bound only to a capability to think "intelectually", inteligence of the act is proved in practice – in its usefulness (in wide sense of this word).
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except usefulness in practice – but it is not "rational", "intelectual" instrument. As we will see in next paragraphes, usefulness is too tied to our preconcepts and that is why it doesn't reach the splendid intelectual independence which rationalists still believe in.) Therefore, in spite of the fact that nobody can give reasons for the one or the other, everyone who believes in one of them is controlled by the consequencies of the believed vision. Our rational control of these visions (as well as other simple pictures that structure our thinking and that I call "myths") is terribly limited. Back to my example of the philosophical disagreement: Materna thinks that I am very very odd because I have distorted one of the primary intuitions of common sense – the intuition that sentence Aristotle was philosopher is true if there is any possible world in which in the given time the man called Aristotle existed and simultaneously the man had property "to be a philosopher". On the other side I bother with a question why such a clever man, as Materna, doesn't see that this explanation is only semantic explication and that it doesn't say anything about the real correspondence between a proposition and a portion of world. Since I have formerly shared Materna's opinion now I can see how compelling the correspondence theory can be. There is a very important thing in this issue: The reasons why I have started to see blind spots of the theory were not my previous doubts. I began to see blind spots only after I had said to myself: Why do Davidson, Quine, Sellars say so strange things about correspondence and cognition? Let us look at this problem from the other side, from their side. However, to see it from their side means to accept the notion that there is no radical gap between a subject and an object of cognition. They both are epistemic constructions which don't accord with the real cognitive situation. When we accept this we have to accept also the fact that any eternal truth-maker can not exist in this picture. From this point of view, items which realists consider to be portions of the true world – the realists' truth-makers of our propositions – are complexes of our beliefs for which we haven't had reasons to call them into question yet. If we asked ourselves in this context what would be a reason for calling them into question we must answer: A failure in practice, an inability to do or to achieve what we want or need. Therefore, there is not any correspondence or any thing of this kind in this picture. Let me to sum up what I have tried to show by the help of the example of my disagreement with Materna: 1. There is a very simple picture which helps us to grasp huge parts of our originally chaotic experience. This primal structuring influences what people who share some picture (no matter if intentionally or unintentionally) regard as rational. 2. I call these pictures "myths" because any rational, pure intelectual procedure how to criticize these pictures does not exist there. These pictures – these myths – rule our life to enormous extend. 3. The myth can be criticized from the outside only, from "the world" structured by some other myth. (I could have seen the blind spot of correspondence theory only if I took up Davidson's conception of cognition with its founding myth of a native inseparability of a cognizing subject and a cognized object.) 4. There is no independent backdrop that can help us to determine which of the competing myths is really true. Only success in practice can help us to choose the "right" myth (the "right" way) but we shloud be conscious of the limitation of this criterion because what is considered to be a success is constructed by the same or some another myth in advance. 5. The best we can do is to adopt experimental stance towards our thinking. This means we should stop the endeavour to find eternal truth which has 126
been hoped for by people from Aristotle's time up to now. We cannot find the last context of all things in the world. We cannot find what I call (being inspired by Nietzsche) "The True World". 6. The fifth point brings me to the fact that any of myths doesn't exist in seclusion. To clarify it let us return to the myth of the correspondence theory of truth. The theory would have no sense if it wasn't supported by idea that there are two radical distinctive sets of items: the set a) – propositions, or mental states, or raw feelings (I call them "a-items"); and the set b) – really existing things as a person, a notebook, a war, love and real relations between these things (I call them "b-items"). The set b is conceived in a way to serve as the set of truth-makers for "a-items". However, to give significance to this conception we have to believe that "b-items" are absolutely independent on us and simultaneously that there is some possibility how we can get to know these "b-items" in their true form. The "true form" brings us to the idea of essences – the unchangeable parts of changeable things. This myth of essencialism leads us – on the time axis – deeply in occidental history and – on the axis of ideas' genealogy – to the core of the occidental type of thinking. The type which profoundly needs to grasp world as a building that is constructed from firm, unchageable bricks (that is "portions of real reality" or "things in themselves"). If we could stand aside this widest picture, the myth could be seen as a ridiculous projection of child's box of bricks onto our world.181 4. Tracing one of our sport myths In my view there are the three main myths which determine our ideology of modern sports: The myth of "kalokagathia", the myth of "ancient Greek amateurism" and the myth of "medieval dislike for sports and body". All of them guide us: 1. by a construction of our sports "history" which influences choice of ideals and standards; and 2. by setting a duty to come near to these ideals and standards. As we don't have much space here to write about the problem in detail, we are focusing on kalokagathia only. However, I want to line out the general way of decomposing all of the mentioned myths and the general way of illuminating their ideological functions. This criticism is used not to achieve the "right" way, but to aid us to build up the new myths. These new myths should help us to understand contemporary sports better than the old ones.
Kalokagathia and we "moderns" When we descend to the ancient roots of kalokagathia we find that the ideal is not the same as an ideal we have in mind ordinerily if we uttered this word (see Šíp, 2008). The first noticeable comeback of ancient sports ideal we can trace back in the end of Middle Ages and in Renaissance (for example, to the school for "young Chriastian gentlemen" called "The House of Delight" which was founded by Italian humanist Vittorino da Feltre). However, we can hear canty discourse about this ideal from the last third of the 18th century AD when people like Besadow or GutsMuths tried to improve modern educational institutions. If we inspect sources of kalokagathia's "reevaluation" in the 18th and the 19th century we will easily find that the ideal is much more a modern creation rather than the product of ancient thoughts.
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This passage owes many amendments to critical notes of Alex Kremer.
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Let us focus on GutsMuths' case. He looked up to ancient gymnastic ideals because he wanted to introduce systematic physical education into school. Thus he revived the word "gymnastics". Even in his Gymnastics for Youth invoked ancient dead Greeks: "Brilliant folk! You left us going to Elysium, but your answering the question of relation between body and soul is still alive and eternal" (citated according to: Olivová, 1979, p. 471]). However, we should ask ourselves what GutsMuths had near to hand when he started this revival. He answered our question in his memoirs: …What I digged out from primeval rubble, from historic residue of early and late antiquity what I found out by thinking and even by chance, were brouht back here (in Schnefentahl [place where GutsMuths worked as a teacher – RŠ]) piece by piece in joyful trial. And thus principal exercise multiplies and splits itself into new forms and tasks and new rules that it was hard to track down rose up … (quoted according to: Olivová, 1979, p. 471) It is important to take notice of the vocabulary that Gutsmuths used: He "digged" his information out of "rubble", out of "historic residue", he found it out "by thinking" and "even by chance", the body of new gymnastic system was "revived piece by piece", the "principal exercise multiplies and splits itself into new forms and tasks" etc. All his verbal equipement doesn't indicate that GutsMuths took over and revived some formerly existing pattern, but that he created it from historic "rubble" and "residue". And if we will inquire the historic context of his lifework in detail we readily grasp that there were no deep historic inspections of ancient original texts here. GutsMuths needed to solve problems that he faced (problems with an outdated system of education of his time) in new Enlightenment's way and the ancient examples were only passing inspirations. His system of gymnastics was very different from the Greek penthatlon or the other Greek disciplines. For example, horse vaulting played very important role in his system (and Jahn intensified this feature later in German system) and thanks to it the word "gymnastic" took over different meaning than it had in antiquity. It was a residue, however not of ancient times, but medieval knight's exercises and thanks to this residue we can exercise on vaulting horse, pommel horse, buck, parralel bars, or horizontal bar. The same only superficial inspiration could we see if we turn our attention to the myth of "Greek amateurism". In his book The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics, D. C. Young shows how the sequence of exalters of Greek Olympics (from Mahaffy through Gargner, Shorey, and Gardiner to Harris) work very loosely with ancient texts. For instance, Shorey repeating his predecessors varied the original meanings of the passages from Pindar poems; he mixed up Pindar's odes of Olympic victors with his poems on other themes and he changed the datings of affairs. To enhance disaster of "professionals" which allegedly replaced "amateurs" in stadiums and thus caused degeneration of Greek sports he listed six manifestations of this postPindaric decay of Olympic Games and Greek sports. He refered to men: …who won his victories by 1) breaking the fingers of antagonist or 2) otherwise disambling him…3) the number of pounds of raw flesh he could devour, 4) the whipcords he could break by knotting the veins in his brow, 5) the oxen he could lift, 6) the chariots he could stay in full carrer – the type of men, in short, whose repulsive, lethargic features are preserved to us in the late Roman statues of athletes… (quoted according to: Young, 1984, p. 9)
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Young reacts to this passage in these words: … Even worse are Shorey's violent misdatings, every one of them at least five hunderd years… Items one, two, and six are stories told of various athletes from the archaic and classical period of Greece… And items three, four and five are not stories told about athletes who came 'after the brief bloom' of the Pindaric 'amateur' in the fifth century. Rather they are all feats attributed to Milo, the sixth century B.C. wrestler who won many Olympic crowns before Pindar was even born… (Young, 1984, pp. 10–11)
Let us return to kalokagathia myth. In GutsMuths' above mentioned main text Gymnastic for Youth we can take notice another feature that we don't usually connect with this myth, although the feature was present in ancient gymnasiums also. In this text GutsMuths expounded in exact way how "gymnast" – the man who oversee and conduct gymnastic exercises at a gym – should control his charges: …The wards line up, at regular intervals of one step from each other, stick out their chest, with arms akimbo. Gymnast commands: 'Line up! Step out!' And the wards begin exercise in perfect regular beat… (citation according to: Olivová, 1979, p. 471) These exercise's rules have had not only the type of regulation which we know from games, but first of all the type that is typical for military exercise. It is the type of disciplinary surveillance which demands arraying and visibility from all wards for all the time of any activity. It is the time-tested system that enables supervisors to control a mass of people. The impact of militarism penetrated even into humanist's instituts of the 18th and 19th centuries, like GutsMuths' Philantropinum was. As Foucault shows, especially in his Discipline and Punish, this manner of administration pierced from military life not only into prison service, but also into hospitals and educational institutes. However, I don't think, unlike Foucault, that this manner has arisen only in Early Modern period. It is the tool which has been used in ancient Greece and probably since time immemorial. Till now physical culture has always been in close relation to military life and its values. This fact helps us to understand why GutsMuths' and Pestalozzi's ideals of equilibrated education of mind and body were used in progress of physical education in military institutes and were utilized to introduce national principle into the 19th century European thinking. For example, important disciples of Pestalozzi's thoughts became instructors of physical training in state's military institutes: the Spanish officer Amoros in France, Swiss Phokion Heinrich Clias in Great Britain. Peter Henrik Ling formed and brushed up his wellknown gymnastic system in military academy in Swedish Carlsberg. (Cf. Olivová, 1979, pp. 497–499.) On the other hand, at the beginning of 19th century, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Friedrich Friesen found German national gymnastic movement. They discreetely, but successfuly militarized Germans by the help of it. Thus they contributed to defeat Napoleonic troops. In some years later the movement split itself into follow-up different gymnastic movements. However, all of them had programme with an ideological backround – one of them was created by conservative nationalits, other by socialist internationalists, and the third group confessed "democratic values" and so on. Isolated Euler's rebukes that gymnastic movements are too much politisized stayed unheard. (Cf. Perútka et al., 1985, p. 78.) The same principle of constructing of own nation and of fight for its character we can spot in Czech movements – on the one side the movement called "Sokol" [Falcon – in English] and
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on the other "Orel" [Eagle] which was catholic reaction to freethinking or partly Protestant backround of "Sokol" movement .
5. The philosophical work with myth It was just shown hopefully, in modern times we can not see any real display of this kalokagathia myth without some other, often dubitable features. The myth seems to exist in order that people mobilize their energy which should be used for many other goals – military preparedness or justification of social stratification or formation of new social glue. If there was any perfect the 19th century man whose education was led by ideal of kalokagathia, he would have been educated in this way in order he could have done military service, or in order his social, racial or national superiority could have been confirmed. However, the dubitability in question is not something wrong in itself. Myths often become dubitable, because we are taught by myth-makers to see only their light side. For example, that is right that "Sokol" movement remains one of the most amazing movements in the Czech history, because we owe many things to it – for instance, a plentiful net of amateur theatres that were dissipated all over our country together with formation of "Sokol clubs". However, in spite of that "Sokol" had intensely nationalistic aims and contributed to social scission of Czech, traditionally catholic villages and to tension in multicultural big cities in the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries. To be honest, I hasten to add that Czech intellectuals acted in thrilled atmosphere of a new European self-definiton and, of course, under press of the successful German gymnastic movement which supported and unified Germen element in the Czech territory. The only thing I want to sketch here is that we should learn to pose the right questions or to see myth in whole context. Later in his book about modern and ancient sports' amateurs, Young bothers about whether people like Shorey or Gardiner made this myth deliberately or by ignorance only. He points out many presuppositions and prejudices (as, for example, the British aristocratic prejudice of "degenerated professionalism of sporting worker class" or the American prejudice of racism) that stayed at the very beginning of this myth. Despite this exposure he doesn't answer his own question. I think it is better to ask: "Why does really a myth emerge? Who does set him? In what circumstances does it spring up? What could it be used for?" In the third section I said that any myth doesn't stay alive in seclusion, that myths form clusters of interdependent influences. That is right, I think, in the case of modern occidental sports myths too. As we could see earlier, Europeans started to invoke the ancient Greek gymnasiums and kalokagathia again at the end of the 18th and during the whole 19th century. However, why had this concept been sleeping for 17 centuries and why was it awaken then in the last third of the 18th century? What happened in Europe of that time? It is the time of great historical changes. The industrial revolution started to influence lifes of million people. The traditional society was damaged and a new type (the modern society) began to arise. In Europe, there sprang up new social classes – the aristocracy which was transformed enlarging itself by the richest traders and important officials, the townspeople that were reaching for more and more political power and the powerless labourers that populated emerging town slums. During the 19th century a number of people in Europe increased from 187 million to 401 million (cf. Olivová, 1979, p. 495). The construction of the new society was needed because solidarity and social cohesion were violated. Nationalism proved to be a very good tool for that. All over Europe of that time nations started to make their frontiers apparent and to define themselves against others nations
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by means of "national" epics, fairy-tales and deeds of hoary national heroes. They started to define national virtues and vices, their historical mission and so on. So, nationalism seems to be the European answer to the deep change in the structure of societies. However, the process of changes was not so easy. Despite the tensions among nations, despite their wars and diferentiation a need to define a common European identity also appeared. The identity could help to discern the developed, privileged European nations from primitive and uncivilized societies living in other places on Earth. This was a very important issue in the time of colonialism. And the ancient times could offer some narratives, examples and ideals. Noticing some of them: 1. Greek rationality and moderateness (areté); 2. Roman law and its capability to rule large foreign territories; and 3. Into Greek translated Hebraic message of linear time (in both its version – theistic one and Enlightenment‘s one). Present-day Spanish historian – Josep Fontana – wrote these laconic lines about this process and thus pointed out the real similarities between ancient and modern myth-making: …This concept originated in a self-picture which Greeks created when they were seeing themselves in a false mirror of an Asiatic barbarian – a counter-being which was fabricated by them intentionally to serve them as a counter-example – and at the same time they built up history that legitimized this identity. Europeans of the 18th and the 19th century used this identity when they tried to define themselves contrary to "primitives" and "savages". In Prussia and in Great Britain it was decided to found education on the study of the ancient times and to prove by it that a complex of social values dominating society at that time was a heritage of idealized Greek… (Fontana, 2000, pp. 8–9)
In my country, as well as in almost whole Europe and partly North America, this impact has been apparent. This enthrallment has been visible nearly in everything that emerged during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. We can find it in official documents as well as in bestsellers. For example, let us listen to some sentences said by Lord Henry – the seductive heroe of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray: …I believe, cried the Lord Henry, that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream – I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism and return to the Hellenic ideal…
In these sentences we can hear one of the lines structuring our modern occidental myth (this myth covers all others myths and ties them into one complex). The line says: The middle ages are connected with maladies and the ancient times with full development of human powers. Other lines were outlined by Fontana above: We are the successors of these golden times – our moderateness and body–soul development is the proof of it –, therefore, we have to be rulers or condescending Big Brother who teach you, savage, how to live and think best. I am sure that it sounds to you, as well as to me, strangely and disgustingly. That is why, I think, we have grown up from these cultural melieu, because our globalizing world pushes us to think in another way. However, in sports studies we are still dragged by myths which grew in the old, outdated modern time of the 19th century. We should put them away and create new myths. As I asserted in the third section, we cannot get out of myths fully and find the eternal truth. However, we can do many useful works in the area of our discipline. For example, we 131
defocus borderline between Greek athlete and Roman gladiator. We should do it not to claim that they both are the same type of crowd-pleaser, but we should do it to be able to point out similarities: Originally they both are ritual figures, they both were assumed to be in touch of gods, they both should prove favour of gods by his victory in competition, they both were center of public attention, they both were means by the help of which masses can meet sacred, they both changed his character in the course of time. In gladiator's conduct of life we can spot deep philosophy of individual stoic freedom (cf. Reid, 2006, pp. 39–42) and in Greek athlete's victory we cannot see only selfless joy of competition. For instance, "it is true that the officials of the Olympic Games gave the victorious athletes a crown of olives, nothing more", but "that is because the athlete's own home cities would reward them with lavish prizes." In some times victors could receive the sum amounts fourteen years wages. (Cf. Young, 1984, pp. 128–129.) If we defocus it we might glimpse some features that have accompanied us – occidentals – thousand years: unusual yearning for individual success and for making oneself visible on the one hand and on the other longing of spectators' mass for heroes who can do thing which they can't do. Peharps, recognition of these features is to help us to understand better why reality of contemporary sports and our ideals are in so great disproportion.
References: 1. FONTANA, J. (2001) Evropa před zrcadlem [Europe before an Mirror]. Praha: NLN. ISBN 80-7106-395-9. 2. FOUCAULT, M. (2000) Dohlížet a trestat [Discipline and Punish]. PRAHA: DAUPHIN. ISBN 80-86019-96-9. 3. MCCUTHEON, R. T. (2000) "Myth". In: Braun, W. – McCutcheon, R. T. (eds.) Guide to the study of religion, London : Cassell, s. 190–208. ISBN 0-304-70176-9. 4. OLIVOVÁ, V. (1979) Lidé a hry. Historická geneze sportu [Humankind and Games. Historic Genesis of Sports]. Praha: Olympia. ISBN unavailable. 5. PERÚTKA, J. et al. (1985) Dejiny telesnej kultúry [History of Physical Culture]. Bratislava: SPN. ISBN unavailable. 6. REID, H. L. (2006) Was the Roman Gladiator an Athlete? In: Journal of Philosophy of Sport, v. XXXIII, i. 1, pp. 37–49. ISSN 0094-8705. 7. ŠÍP, R. (2008), „Kalokagathia jako ideál?― [Kalokagathia as an Ideal?]. In: ŠÍP, R. (ed.) Kalokagathia – ideál nebo flatus vocis? [Kalokagathia – an Ideal or flatus vocis?], Brno: Masaryk University Press and Paido, p. 8–23. ISBN so far unassigned. 8. YOUNG, D. C. (1984) The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics. Chicago: Ares Publishers. ISBN 0-89005-523-8.
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AESTHETICS IN SPORT
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MUST WE KEEP ON SPEAKING ABOUT ART IN SPORT? A claim for the Aesthetics of Sport Lacerda, O. Teresa Porto University, Faculty of Sport From the seventies so far, a considerable part of the aesthetics of sport‘s inquiry has been supported by the arguing about the relation (or lack of it) between sport and art. The different author‘s aid on the search to sustain these points of view was fundamental for the development of this sport‘s philosophy area. From the most polarized positions, as Aspin‘s (1983), Masterson‘s (1983), Wertz‘s (1985) or Boxill‘s (1988), who consider sport as a wayof-art, to others like Ziff (1974, cit. Osterhoudt, 1991) or Martland (1985, ibid.), that completely refuse a relation between sport and art (questioning if there are any aesthetical qualities on sport), several authors have argued about the relation between sport and art. In what concerns this thematic, there is a permanent discussion about the use of the ―convergence points/ breaking points‖ methodology, between those kind of activities. Even if it seems to be a necessary path for the construction and consolidation of this investigation area, we consider imperious going beyond this redundant argue. It is imperative to find new arguments that legitimate the aesthetics of sport, starting from the sport‘s peculiar characteristics and specifications, taking in account that these ones don‘t need to have something to do with art. We all know that the domain of the aesthetics goes beyond the reflection about art. So, the identification and characterisation of the aesthetic value of sport, as one of the most significant activities in the XXIst century global society, seems to be an elementary step when talking about contemporary sport‘s aesthetics. David Best (1988) should have been one of the predecessors, as also as one of the great defenders of the aesthetic value of sport, completely excluding its inclusion on the art domain. Parry (1989) also shares this point of view, questioning himself about the advantage for sport when it is considered art. Following this idea, Witt (1989) also considers that the world of sport is a world of aesthetic values. Every sports activity, every situation in sport may bring about a whole scale of moods, feelings and impressions which allow a deep aesthetic experience. Accordingly to him, ―For many people, athletes and spectators, this experience is the ever-fascinating aspect of sport.‖ (1989, p. 11). Takács (1989), another theorist, considers irrelevant the representation of sport as a way-of-art. Concerning the aesthetic value of sport, the main point to this author is the aesthetic categories component. He alerts that it is extremely difficult to fit the aesthetic qualities of human movements, body and sport into the general categories of aesthetics. Takács (1989) emphasizes the need of reinterpretation of certain categories and to some extent the creation of new (specific) ones, which is obviously not easy but seems to be fundamental. The purpose of this paper is to argue about the aesthetic value of sport for itself, what is meant by its own aesthetic qualities (and not art qualities), and by the clarified contribute of the observer (the audience) that is able to adopt an aesthetic attitude. Although sport could eventually subsist without spectators, they are indispensable to actualize its aesthetic possibilities and to the instauration of an aesthetic relation. We think that informed spectators, on the scope of sport and aesthetics, can contribute greatly for the advance of knowledge in this area. So, the discussion‘s starting point, and some of the argumentation I am going to develop, is based in the information collected trough the opinion of teachers from the Portuguese public universities, faculties of sport and arts (Lacerda, 2002). The inquired people were asked to describe the relationship between sport and aesthetics. Through 134
content‘s analysis, with a posterior categorical definition, it was possible to reach an assemblage of concepts that might explain (according to teacher‘s opinion) the affinity between sport and aesthetics. Beauty, movement, body and expression were the most reported concepts. It seems that for this group of interviewed people, the aesthetic value emerges through the body movement expression, which creates beauty. Body Although in an equivocal way, in sports‘ domain the association of body and aesthetic concepts usually lies on the body shapes of some sportsmen that, considering the morphological type, remit to the ectomorphism – high percentage of fat free mass and moderate muscularity. The corporal morphology interferes, naturally, on the aesthetical representation of the sporting-body, and must be considered as an influence factor in the sport‘s aesthetical experience structuring. Nevertheless, the aesthetical looking amplifies (instead of reducing) the possibilities of that body, which indicates that the diversity of morphological types exhibited by the sporting-body reveals its potentiality, in what concerns the aesthetical value. Expressing trough the body, the sporting-movement fits, and is fitted, to the athlete‘s morphotype. From the rhythmic gymnast, or the higher-jump athlete, we expect linearity, which permits amplitude of movements and vertical impulsion; from the halterofilist, or bodybuilder, we expect significant muscular hypertrophy that allows peaks of strength in power moments; from the sumo wrestlers we expect exceptional quantities of fat mass. The sportsman‘s body communicates, like a body-book (Ribeiro, 1994), having a certain grammar of gestures (Gil, 1997). The body can tell, trough its narrative, the athlete‘s history. The harmony between the morphological type and the movement‘s typology is fundamental in this communication process. We search for a perfect relation between shape and function, in other words, between the body‘s model and the required movement depending on the different sport activities. The aesthetical experience, inducted by sport‘s observation, finds in the morphological variability of the sporting-body some of the nutrients that feed and power it. The sport has the capacity of communicating to the body movement and aesthetical worth (Cunha e Silva, 1999). It materialises a sort of a chromatic injection allowing sport to valorise movement. When metamorphosing, trough physical exercise and training, the sporting-body shows itself as a body of variabilities (Cunha e Silva, 1999), which reveals all its plastic possibilities through the sporting movement. The plastic of the body‘s movement is translated in lines, shapes, relief, volumes from the body that fills the space and occupies the time with movement. The human body, thanks to the intensive training it can be submitted, acquires optimal qualities and levels of plasticity. We may say that the body is a plastic matter, when referring to an innate mouldable characteristic (by exercise and training). In sport, the body acts like a space or entity, that is inhabited by movement, which translates itself on creative actions, leading to the expression of the self and being, of the Man in the world. As quoted by an inquired of our study, “(…) the sport is an expression vehicle of the athlete‟s most intimate sentiments. In fact, the man turns up naked from any kind of “mask”, showing the deeper self.” Another inquired one justified the relation between sport and aesthetics emphasising that ―(…) the sport is a way of human expression from which emerges a profound aesthetical value.”
Movement and expression An expressive movement is a movement that communicates, despite of not having the intention of doing it, as happens on most sporting activities. The expression is culturally 135
configured and, in a great part of sporting activities it depends mainly on the observer, who must be predisposed to recognise and identify this expressive character. An art‘s professor justified his concordance, concerning to the sport-aesthetics relation, referring that ―(…) the sport evolves the presence of an observer that pleases himself with an object he did not created.” It is necessary to possess references, to be ―prepared‖ to enjoy this pleasure. The absence of intention from the one who takes part on the movement doesn‘t invalidate recognising expressive qualities to it, and do not impede it to communicate. The body has a language that allows it to talk with its mouth shut (Choffée, 1999). Batalha e Xarez (1999) refer, relating to dance, that the movement by the movement communicates by itself, consisting the message on the own movement. When an athlete performs a handball suspended strike the intention is to score, however, the spectator can perfectly infer some aesthetical value, recognising the expressivity of the body movement trough the elevation in the air to conclude the move. When the expressivity is intentional, as happens on the artistic ice-skating or rhythmic gymnastics, the main goal is to influence the spectator‘s emotions, communicating him something. Batalha e Xarez (1999) gave the following designation of communicative and expressive domain, characterised by the symbolic interaction, ―(…) by a conjunct of physical and psychological processes in which are performed operations in a relational dimension (sender-receiver) aiming to achieve certain goals (message) loaded of intentionality.‖ (p. 69). Here, the movement looks to appeal and projects itself to the public. One of the inquired people, from the art‘s professors group, when trying to explain his understanding about the sport-aesthetics relation, said that “The sport is a subsidiary activity of life, representing perhaps a form of interactive communication between the individual and the world.” Although it is not univocal, the expressive sporting gesture aims to have a meaning, a signification. The subjectivity of the observer is always a catalyser of meanings. Without a medium there is no chance of expression (Monteiro, 1985). The sport‘s way of expression is, naturally, the body in movement. Even the absence of movement, implicated in certain static postures or attitudes, evokes action (for example: when the athletes are in the starting line of a velocity run, or the posture of the water trampoline athlete just before the jump, equilibrated on the extreme of the platform). Therefore, ―The movement can be defined by antinomy, through an absolute inertia (impossible when talking about the body: there is always a peristaltic choreography, a muscular fibrillation).‖ (Cunha e Silva, 1999, p. 23). The change is revealed in the sportsman‘s inertia, the action to occur, the movement‘s latency. The stereotyped movements of the sporting techniques do not disqualify or diminish the expressive possibilities. It seems to be some similarities between sport and dance, where ―(…) despite the possibility of existing a similarity between dance sequences, it is only illusory and apparent, because each one has its own independent speech. It is not enough to analyse them at the syntactic level, the semantic plan is fundamental.‖ (Monteiro, 1985, p. 32). The technicality in sport can resemble a certain fidelity to archetypes; in other words, can suggest a reproduction and imitation of models. But not necessarily! Dominating the technique signifies, naturally, some affinities to models that, until a certain point, can be understood as an imitation, but imitation following Aristotle‘s way. Aristotle says that the imitating is co-natural to Man, it is the recognition of the outer influence that makes the attraction, determining a choice that requires an imitation. According to this perspective, the imitative act is never passive or innocuous; imitating is sharing through the deeply acceptance of the dispositions of the imitation. We have many different ways of imitating, and following Aristotle‘s way of thinking, as also as his concept of mimesis, all imitation is difference. Therefore, the observer can distinguish in a certain technical execution some autonomy and singularity, so, is not a literal copy. The technicality can not be reduced to the simple imitative
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disposition, because we are talking about the actualization of models, which reveal the human‘s productive dynamics. So, technical elements like a basketball‘s throw, a football‘s bicycle kick or a somersault in the gymnastics, can be apprehended by the observer like something different, not depending only on the context, nor the elements that precede or succeed them. The sporting techniques acquire a polysemy going by the capacity, from the observer, of viewing beyond the apparent reproduction, repetition or redundancy, finding ―infinite‖ connotations. Movement, body and expression: these seem to be fundamental domains of reflection and study for the development of the aesthetics of sport. Searching for analogies and differences between movement, body and the expression, from the sportsman and the dancer, from the sportsman and the actor, from the sportsman and the musician or the painter, does not seem to be the most profitable way to the evolution of the aesthetics of sport. However, this doesn‘t mean that we totally disagree from some possibilities of the approaching of sport to the art. We have just done it, in certain occasions, during this paper. It seems, however, that the aesthetics of sport must be grounded in the presupposition that there are objects and activities outside the art‘s world that may induce an aesthetic experience. They may induce, provoke, but they don‘t aim to do it. While works of art proceed from an aesthetic intention that is converted in artistic function, objects and activities outside art dominium may produce an aesthetic effect that is not intentionally aimed. That is applied to most sport activities and we think that such condition is the one that must be studied.
References 1. Aspin, D. (1983). Creativity in sport, movement and physical education. In Hans Lenk (ed.), Topical problems of sport philosophy, pp. 185-202. Schorndorf: Verlag Karl Hofmann. 2. Batalha, A.; Xarez, L.: (1999). Sistemática da dança I. Projecto taxonómico. Cruz Quebrada: Faculdade de Motricidade Humana Serviço de Edições. 3. Best, D. (1988). The aesthetic in sport. In William J. Morgan & Klaus V. Meier (eds.), Philosophic inquiry in sport, pp. 477-493. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. 4. Boxill, J. M. (1988). Beauty, sport and gender. In William J. Morgan & Klaus V. Meier (eds.), Philosophic inquiry in sport, pp. 509-518. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. 5. Choffée, N. (1999). Les capacités du corps à produire des discours. In Ana Paula Batalha & Luís Xarez (eds.), Actas da Conferência Internacional “Dança: Cursos e Discursos”, pp. 75-76. Cruz Quebrada: Faculdade de Motricidade Humana. 6. Cunha e Silva, P. (1999). O lugar do corpo. Elementos para uma cartografia fractal. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget. 7. Gil, J. (1997). Metamorfoses do corpo. Lisboa: Relógio D‘Água Editores. 8. Lacerda, T.O. (2002). Elementos para a construção de uma Estética do Desporto. Dissertação de Doutoramento. Porto: Faculdade de Desporto da Universidade do Porto. 9. Masterson, D. (1983). Sport, theatre and art in performance. In Hans Lenk (ed.), Topical problems of sport philosophy, pp. 169-183. Schorndorf: Verlag Karl Hofmann. 10. Monteiro, E. (1985). Comunicação em dança – Aplicabilidade das noções linguísticas estruturais em dança? Ludens, Vol. 9, nº 4: 26-36. 11. Osterhoudt, R. (1991). The philosophy of sport: an overview. Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishing Company. 137
12. Parry, J. (1989). Sport, art and the aesthetics. Sport Science Review, 12º ano: 15-20. 13. Ribeiro, A. (1994). Dança temporariamente contemporânea. Lisboa: Vega. 14. Takács, F. (1989). Sport aesthetics and its categories. Sport Science Review, 12º ano: 2732. 15. Wertz, S. (1985). Artistic creativity in sport. In David Vanderwerken & Spencer Wertz (eds.), Sport inside out, pp. 510-519. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. 16. Witt, G. (1989). The world of sport - A world of aesthetic values. Sport Science Review, 12º ano: 10-15.
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PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN SPORT
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THOMAS HOBBES - A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF SPORT PHILOSOPHY Metaphor of a race
Giuseppe Sorgi For those who wish to reflect upon Hobbes‘ texts, the questionings and difficulties which can be found are quite important. In other circumstances, there have been ways to investigate the political and philosophical itinerary of Thomas Hobbes and such attempt has stressed his ―many souls‖182. The high complexity in approaching the English philosopher cannot represent a valid reason to withdraw from further effort. Curiosity, on the other hand, is one of the key aspects of research. And who investigates the nature of the final themes referred to the loisir sport sphere, could not have chosen a better moment of reasoning with Hobbes himself regarding his possible approach to sport, which can be identified in ―A View of the Passions Represented in a Race‖183. Activities that fulfill this field are the relationships, competitions and encounters/comparisons amongst people. Hobbes‘ anthropology introduces a somewhat problematic human figure that reveals inside features of game practice brought to the limits of their realization. However, before probing into the possible reflection on sport, it is convenient to clarify a functional concept in deciphering matter regarding passions. The idea of sensation plays an important role on the new human figure proposed by Hobbes. He performs, indeed, a materialistic and mechanistic reduction of all those functions that before were assigned to the soul and now are interpreted in terms of bodily motion184. For such consideration regarding man, Hobbes makes use of categories – body and motion – in order to investigate natural things. The human sensation is an encounter between two particular motions that have as reference the human being. The former goes from the thing to the sense organ and the latter goes from the sense organ to the thing, which constitutes the reaction to the first one185. The entire process, however, does not finish. The motion, with which the brain reacts, does not stop but proceeds through nerve canals to the heart, where it encounters ―the motion which is called vital‖186. This is a kind of rhythm in which all parts of the organism move to and its mechanic preservation constitutes an inclination towards self-preservation, referring to man as a whole. Sensation, in touch with vital rhythm, becomes passion. If motion, coming from the 182
See G. SORGI, 1996: Quale Hobbes? Dalla paura alla rappresentanza, Milan, Franco Angeli Editore.
The English philosopher writes: ―The comparison of the life of man to a race, though it holdeth not in every point, yet it holdeth so well for this our purpose that we may thereby both see and remember almost all the passions before mentioned. But this race we must suppose to have no other goal, nor other garland, but being foremost‖ (See ―Rassegna delle passioni rappresentate in una corsa‖, Part I, Ch. IX, par. 21, from T. HOBBES, Elementi di legge naturale e politica, edited by A. PACCHI, 1972, Firenze, Einaudi, p. 75; Human Nature in Thomas Hobbes, English Works, ed. By W. Molesworth, London 1839-1845 [Second Anastatic Reprint, Aalen 1966], Vol.IV, Part I, Chap. IX, § 21, pp.52). 183
184
A. PACCHI, 1979: Introduzione a Hobbes, Bari, p. 29. See also A. NEGRI, Introduzione to T. HOBBES, Il corpo – L‟uomo, in Philosophia Elementa edited by Antimo NEGRI, 1972: Torino, UTET, pp. 9-38. 185 T. HOBBES, De corpore, ch. 25, 2, in Philosophia Elementa, cit. 186 T. HOBBES, Elementi di legge naturale e politica, cit., Part I, p. 49.
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outside, helps general movement, then their harmonious blending is called pleasure; but, when such motions contrast, the vital motion weakens, which is called pain. Pleasure and pain constitute a solicitation to draw closer to what one likes, or to retire from the thing that displeases. According to Hobbes, this animated motion characterizes one‘s personal idea of good and evil, epithet referred to appetite and aversion objects: and we call good what we desire and evil what we hate. The emotional life as a whole originates from these basic couples of passions. Expressed in concrete form, pleasure, pain, passions in general are not voluntary. This same will is no more than a desire and as such, it is determined by external things. And for this reason, when it will unfold in terms of conclusion or omission of the same action, it will result to be a temporary condition because the human being will always be in contact with objects and bodies that will put back in circulation the human mechanism. A continuing and unending motion that the philosopher from Malmesbury decided to represent through the metaphor of a race. Dwelling upon sport activity, Hobbes considers the race carefully, detailed in descriptions and in its particulars. It is an activity in which you have to endeavour (to endeavour, is appetite) and in which energies can be lost (To be remiss, is sensuality). Through racing, you can be in competition with other people to whom you turn to gaze, both who chases (To consider them behind, is glory) and who is chased (To consider them before, is humility). Only in the virtue of confrontation, endeavour –that is, the energy to overtake the one who is ahead (To endeavour to overtake the next, emulation) or make him fall (To supplant or overthrow, envy) – can exist. There is satisfaction in seeing someone withdraw and observing, at the same time, the overtaking of a runner whom we would not like to see surpassed (To see one out-gone whom we would not, is pity). There is the following of someone (To hold fast by another, is to love) and the help to those who fall behind (To carry him on that so holdeth, is charity). There is the overtaking (Continually to out-go the next before, is felicity) and to be overtaken (Continually to be out-gone, is misery). There is bodily strength (To be in breath, hope) and weariness (To be weary, despair). There is the decisive abandonment of the race (And to forsake the course, is to die)187. Even though we do not have proof of any physical activity carried out by the English philosopher, we can consider Hobbes a good observer of racers and their consequent motor activity. The performed reconstruction is the most tangible proof. From this, some elements that are at the basis of game can be extracted. First of all, confrontation – man does not run alone, but he compares himself with people like himself – in such a relation, he makes use of those abilities that Hobbes does not omit to define as power188. Power is considered as the ability of obtaining good for one‘s own body and avoiding evil 189 which, in the specific case, corresponds to the act of making every endeavour to overtake the next, to make one‘s way through a sudden obstacle190. In a clearer manner, to be able to excel over other people by all means. Then, there is victory. According to Hobbes, the aim of a race consists in being
187
T. HOBBES, Elementi di legge naturale e politica,, cit., pp. 75-76. (Human Nature , English Works, cit., Vol.IV, Part
I, Chap. IX, § 21, pp.52-53). 188
See Elementi di legge naturale e politica, Ch. VIII, pp. 58-59; Leviatano, Ch. X, p. 82; De Cive, Ch. I, p. 84. De Cive, p. 84. 190 Elementi di legge naturale e politica, pp. 75-76. 189
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ahead: taking the lead. Being ahead in sport activity represents the main reason of the action that implements the confrontation. With the aim of concentrating these elements into one formula, we may recall, taking it to extremes, the concept of agon (i.e. competition) individuated by Roger Callois191. For Hobbes, the element of competition is ―exaggerated‖ to the extreme. The pursuit of victory is not, as it is for the French sociologist, a will demanding something more than surpassing the rival in fairness, trusting him and fighting him without resentment. On the contrary, according to Hobbes, victory is the main nucleus of the race. Withdrawing from pursuing it means to definitively leave the scene – being at the same limit of confrontation as the definitive dropping out of the race: in other words, death. In a more subtle manner, even the element of mimicry (i.e. mimesis), that is to say the identification with fun-spectator or with a team taking part in a match, is traceable in Hobbes‘ discourse192. The delight felt while observing and identifying oneself in leading the confrontation, even though bloody, creates pleasure up to a sense of identification between the player and the observer. Identified with Hobbes‘ reflection, we return to a mere satisfaction of a totally personal interest, supported by a utilitarian logic. Such delight is not included in the described passions, since, as Hobbes stated, it does not have, compared to others, a name that identifies it. This condition, however, does not nullify its existence. In order to expand our discourse and with reference to another identifying pattern of the game suggested by Callois, the connection with the ilinx (i.e. vertigo)193 becomes almost spontaneous. In fact, what is that fear194 that induces man to run in spite of an ever present dangerous death during competition, thus leaving the scene? The mood that accompanies an individual during the race/life is not the same as it is for Callois ―an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind‖195, but it is a natural condition of vertigo and everlasting spasm. Running to be number one entails a constant risk factor, putting on the line one‘s own life. It is what Callois calls ―voluptuous panic‖ to indicate the intense pleasure felt in ―dangerous‖ loisir activities. This is what Hobbes finds in his conception of fear, seen not as a paralysing terror that blocks action, but as a stimulus to overcome the natural state. A goad to run more and better in which the search for risk is not limited to mere events but prolonged in time, experienced throughout the entire race and constantly marked by its highest limit, having, as unleashed object, the possible loss of life. The elements that have been found, although important, are not sufficient to define a sport activity. For a more complete vision, it is important to keep in mind the existence of 191
See R. CALLOIS, 2000: I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine, Milano, Bompiani, pp. 30-33.
Hobbes, in fact, in a previous paragraph which deals with the metaphor of a race, wonders: ―from what passion proceedeth it, that men take pleasure to behold from the shore the danger of them that are at sea in a tempest, or in fight, or from a safe castle to behold two armies charge one another in the field? It is certainly in the whole sum joy, else men would never flock to such a spectacle. Nevertheless there is in it both joy and grief: for as there is novelty and remembrance of own security present, which is delight; so is there also pity, which is grief. But the delight is so far predominant, that men usually are content in such a case to be spectators of the misery of their friends‖ (part I, Ch. IX, par. 19 of Elementi di legge naturale e politica, p. 74; Human Nature, English Works, cit., Vol. IV, Part I, Chap. IX, § 19, pp.52-53). 192
193
R. CALLOIS, I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine, cit., p. 40. See De corpore, XXV, 13, p. 394; De homine, XII, 3, p. 603; Elementi di legge naturale e politica, I, 12, 1-2. 195 R. CALLOIS, I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine, cit., p. 40. 194
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rules. Callois himself states: ―Every game is a system of rules. They define what is and what is not game, in other words, what is fair and what is not. These rules are at the same time arbitrary, mandatory and not appealable. They cannot be violated under any circumstances, and if they are, the result is the interruption or the end of the game‖196. It is clear that Hobbes does not refer to this need in his concept of race. This lacuna should immediately entail the failure of effort to consider Hobbes‘s race like a sport. But, if we think harder, Hobbes himself defines race as a metaphor of life. And human life, according to the philosopher from Malmesbury, has a twofold perspective: the life we live in the natural state and the life we live in the civil state. The only common element into two realities is man that remains crystallized in his unchangeable anthropological features197. Man runs/lives in both dimensions and does it in a similar way. The fundamental difference consists in establishing a priori the rules of race. This does not preclude the existence of passions, but sets them in a pre-established structure, arranging a boundary line between what sport is and what is not. In other words, between an activity that may be considered as a sport and that may not. In this particular case: race. The anthropological Hobbesian model and the description of the state of nature in which man lives badly may be related to sport and sport competition when the lack of rules precludes the same athletic confrontation, highlighting the impossibility to consider Hobbesian race/life in the state of nature which is the paradigm of sport. In fact, there is not authority, namely a referee, that creates, judges and allows the observation of the rules defined as part of the game198. A different hypothesis concerns life, and therefore race, conducted by man inside the civil state. The birth of Leviathan, the artificial entity that fixes the rules and enforces them by power and law, is inevitable, because it is necessary to assure the survival of man and social living. In sport, this aspect is found in the existence of rules that have been established a priori by contract and allow the playing of sport, as well as in the observance of them. Moving along these lines and taking advantage of the presumptions of the philosophical path, it is possible to delineate a sort of Hobbesian paradigm of sport lent by man‘s life in the social state, represented by race. Sport is an activity among human beings in which the main goal is to excel through the use of physical and rational forces having reference to power. The competition is regulated by norms established a priori by the participants with a referee that has the authority to ensure their respect guaranteeing uniformity in its application199. A functional paradigm that goes back to the anthropological premises deducted from the metaphor of race/life. The type of man suggested by Hobbes is entirely built on the valorisation of that amor sui that supplants and expels amor Dei in characterizing the
196
Ibidem, p. 8. See C. SCHMITT, Lo Stato come meccanismo in Hobbes e Cartesio, in ID., Scritti su Thomas Hobbes, edited by Carlo Galli, 1986: Milan, p. 53. 198 See A.G. CONTE, 1995: Filosofia del linguaggio normativo, I, Studies 1965-1981, Turin; and G. FRANCHI, ―Filosofie novecentesche del giuoco sportivo‖, in G. SORGI, ed., 2004: Per un‟etica dello sport, University of Teramo, Degree Course in Sport Management, Economy and Law, Lecture Notes from the A.Y. 2003/2004, Atri. 199 See M. BERTMAN, forthcoming: Sport Philosophy: Rules and Competitive Action, Guaraldi Editore, Rimini. 197
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individual200. A process that dates back to the 12th century when on the social scene appeared ―the individual full of trust in himself‖, a new human specie striving for public success beyond his state201. But, thanks to Hobbes, such new human specie presents a certain personification. The question one asks when reading paragraph 21, ―Review of Passions Represented in a Race‖, contained in Part I, Ch. IX, of Human Nature, may seem foreseeable. Why does Thomas Hobbes resort to race to better represent, almost to schematize, the review of the passions identified and delicately described by himself? The answer is simple, but not trivial. Race is movement: to move in view of an objective, that is to excel. And life for Hobbes is like this: a continuous movement of individuals. What better example than an activity that is a continuous and constant movement of the entire body to represent the vital paradigm of his real mechanical and materialistic anthropology202? The Hobbesian individual is nothing more than a sort of self-propelled organism. A real machine moved by two contrasting stimuli, one of pleasure and one of pain. And mechanically intended passions have a relevant weight on him: that ―particular motion or agitation of the brain that extends to the heart and that is stimulated by external impulses‖203. Passions, nevertheless, are not all positive. Pain is always an ambush. But nature wants man to tend to his own wellbeing. The decisive element of human action may be found in the research by the individual of what is necessary for one‘s own individual preservation, which logically passes through the pursuit of pleasure, using power as a lever: in other words, the ability that man has, in different ways, to achieve his desired good – source, in the materialistic and mechanical perspective, of pleasure itself. But the perspective is not exhausted. The behavioural description has its climax in the relationship that the individual lives with his peers: everyone is searching for good in the same way, through power, and therefore everyone, in the same way, perceives their peers as a rival, an antagonist. The connection between Hobbesian anthropology and race is revealed. The natural reality is characterised by a myriad of men that move, run, one separate from the other, pushed forward by vital unsatisfied stimuli, individuals that consider their advantage as the only method of evaluation, that de facto conditions his situation being impossible to fruitfully relate to its own likes if not that of confrontation/collision without an escape, nor shortcut. A fundamental pre-requisite for this race, the conditio sine qua non, may not be anything else than being foremost. It is not important what is the goal, or the prize, or the reward. Getting ahead is the only reason for which it is possible to start running. Excelling may well lead to survival, from the anthropological viewpoint of ―everyone against everyone‖, but, in a finer way, it is maintaining oneself narcissistically in life, allowing one‘s vainglory to prevail to the detriment of everyone else, i.e. the multitude that surrounds and competes with the individual who runs. A key for a privileged reading can be found in the idea that the fundamentally utilitarian mainspring of surviving ―agree‖, in the specific case of sport example given by 200
Running as a metaphor to man‘s search for eternal life is used by San Paolo: see 1° Cor. 9, 24-27; 2° Tim. 4, 7-8; Fil. 3, 12; 2° Tim. 2, 5. 201 See E. VOEGELIN, 1999: La nuova scienza politica, Roma, Edizioni Borla, p. 222. 202 On the metaphorical language in Hobbesian political thought, see M. CIPOLLETTA, 2003: ―Il linguaggio metaforico nel pensiero politico di Hobbes‖, in Trimestre, XXXVI:3-4, p. 268. 203 Elementi di legge naturale e politica, p. 55.
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Hobbes, ―with a process much more delicate of self-affirmation, with the invincible ambition for everyone to stand out at all times, to bend the other to the evidence of his intellectual, moral and social superiority‖204. And, we add, in the race example, to bend him to the evidence of his physical superiority as well. The picture of man outlined in this situation refers to one enamoured of himself, who enters in conflict with the other because the other, identical to himself, does not accept to recognize his qualities and superior merits. Race is not only the metaphor of continuous movement of individuals, but it also allows emphasizing the features of the vainglory present in every human being in which excelling in a sport finds one‘s concrete expression and climax. The inalterability of the human being weighs within the nature of sport. To stay tied to an anthropological concept like the Hobbesian one, means to crystallize a chaotic and highly problematic reality. The radicalization of certain factors such as the search for victory at all costs, the constant insecurity, the fear of loss, the idea of the opponent as an enemy, generate negative effects on a possible definition of the ought-to-be of an athlete. Thinking of sport and all the sport community in these terms does nothing else than confirm or purely re-trace what today‘s reality demonstrates.
204
A.M. BATTISTA, 1995: Hobbes e la nascita della psicologia politica, in G. SORGI, ed.: Politica e diritto in Hobbes, Milan, Giuffrè Editore, p. 205.
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