Sport and games are a crucial part of our everyday lives. They also raise many interesting, and difficult, philosophical questions. Here are just a few of them:
- What marks an activity as a sport (or a game)? What distinguishes one sport from another? E.g., is Major League baseball a different sport from Little League baseball?
- Why do some rule violations constitute cheating in sport, while others don’t?
- What’s a performance-enhancing drug (PED)? When should use of PEDS be permitted?
- What’s an assistive technology? When should use of assistive technologies be permitted (e.g., Oscar Pistorius’ use of prosthetics in the 2012 Summer Olympics)?
- Should women be allowed to compete in men’s sport (e.g., Michelle Wie in the PGA)? What about men in women’s sport? For that matter, what should determine who counts as a woman in sport, and who counts as a man?
- Is not paying college athletes a form of unjust exploitation?
- Is it permissible for spectators to continue watching (and financially supporting) a sport even when there’s evidence that players risk incurring severe long-term damage by participating?
In this course, we will read philosophers and others offering answers to these and related questions. This will familiarize students with central philosophical concepts and distinctions, and introduce them to several areas of philosophy (including ethics, metaphysics, feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and political philosophy).
The course will also help students develop their careful reading, critical reasoning, and argumentative skills, through written work and intensive discussion. Students will be encouraged to defend their own views on these questions, using the assigned readings as starting points.
Course Requirements:
Students will be assessed on the basis of active participation in class discussion, short argumentative papers, an in-class presentation, and a take-home final exam.
Intended Audience:
This course is intended to serve as an introduction to philosophy. Previous experience in philosophy will not be required or assumed, nor will familiarity with any particular sport.
Class Format:
two 1.5 hour lectures with lots of discussion per week.