Is it okay to hate your rival?

There is an interesting post on the morality of sport-hatred over at the Practical Ethics blog. It would be great if some sport philosophers got in on the discussion.

I'm thinking more about this as I experience certain emotions connected with Robin van Persie after my beloved Arsenal lost at Old Trafford yesterday...

Call for Abstracts: Sports Studies Symposium 2014

Call for Abstracts
The 3nd annual Rockford College Sports Studies Symposium
Date: April 25, 2014
Rockford University
5050 E. State. St.
Rockford, IL 61108
The focus of this year’s symposium is “Defining Sport.” How should scholars of sport approaching defining sport? Is there a consistent definition or approach to defining sport? Is there a difference between defining a sport, the sport, sport, or sports?
We invite cross-disciplinary papers on the different discussions surrounding the term “sport” and its many iterations. We seek to explore how the concept itself, broadly construed, is being employed, understood, challenged, and used in the many different disciplines that study sport. Papers focusing on related concepts, like competition, games, or play, are welcomed as well.
There will be multiple panels. The focus of each panel will depend, in part, on the accepted abstracts. Each presenter will have 20 minutes for his or her presentation. There will also be time for Q&A.
Abstract Submission:
Abstract should be 300-500 words. Send via email (as PDF) to sklein_at_rockford_dot_edu.
Deadline: 1/24/2014
Notification of Acceptance: 2/7/2014
If you have any questions, please contact Shawn Klein: sklein_at_rockford_dot_edu or Michael Perry: mperry_at_rockford_dot_edu.

The End of Sportsmanship?

For a discussion of the trend of eliminating postgame handshakes, go to this post at Ethics for Everyone.

Call for Abstracts, IAPS at 2014 Central APA

Call for Abstracts, Central APA:

There will be a group session sponsored by IAPS at the 2014 Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (2/26/2014 to 3/1/2014), at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.

Please submit an abstract for consideration, of 250 words or less, to mike.austinatsymbol.eku.edu. Each paper will be allotted 30 minutes reading time, and 20 minutes for discussion. The deadline for submission is 9/25/2013.

Ethics and the Beautiful Game at The Boot Room

I am a passionate soccer fan. I love to play, ref, coach, and watch the sport. I also am passionate about my job - being a philosopher. One of the great blessings of my life is to be able to combine these two things. And I think that at least some of us who are academics and benefit from the public trust invested in us should try to bridge the gap between our scholarship and public life.

To that end, I will begin regularly contributing to a new but quickly growing site devoted to soccer, The Boot Room, at http://tbrfootball.com/. My focus will be on ethical issues that arise in the game. My first piece explains why I, as an Arsenal fan, don't want the club to sign Luis Suarez: http://tbrfootball.com/no-to-suarez-at-arsenal/

Enjoy, and if you are so inclined comment at CLSoccer. I'd love to get an ethics discussion going over there!

Philosophy of Sport Bibliography

At the request of a reader, I am posting a bibliography of some of the essential readings in philosophy of sport. This is surely incomplete, so consider this post a starting point, and add your own suggestions in the comments section. (Thanks to Heather Reid for help on this!)

Due to time, these are not organized in any fashion. However, as a starting point I would suggest the first 3 books, one a monograph and the other two anthologies:

Jan Boxill, ed. Sports Ethics (Malden, MA:  Blackwell, 2003); Mike McNamee, ed. The Ethics of Sports:  A Reader (New York:  Routledge, 2010).
 M. Andrew Holowchak, ed. Philosophy of Sport: Critical Readings, Crucial Issues (Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 2002).
Robert L. Simon, Fair Play: Sports, Values, & Society (Boulder, CO:  Westview, 1991- several revised editions of this also are available).

Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens:  A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1955 [1944]).

Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, trans. Meyer Berlash (Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001 [1958]).

John W. Loy, Jr.  “The Nature of Sport: A Definitional Effort,” Quest 10:1 (May, 1968), 1-15. 

Bernard Suits, “What Is A Game?” Philosophy of Science 34:1 (June, 1967), 148-156.

Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 1978).

Allen V. Sapora and Elmer D. Mitchell, The Theory of Play & Recreation (New York:  The Ronald Press Co., 1961).

Eleanor Metheny, “This ‘Thing’ Called Sport,” Journal of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation 40 (March 1969), 59-60.

James W. Keating, “Sportsmanship as a Moral Category,” Ethics 75 (October, 1964), 25-35.

Howard S. Slusher, Man, Sport, and Existence (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1967).

Earle F. Zeigler, Philosophical Foundations for Physical, Health, and Recreation Education (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall,1964).

Paul Weiss, Sport:  A Philosophic Inquiry (Carbondale, IL:  Southern Illinois University Press, 1969).

Warren P. Fraleigh, “The Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport, 1972-1983” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 10 (1984), 3-7.

R. Scott Kretchmar, “From Test to Contest: An Analysis of Two Kinds of Counterpoint in Sport” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 1 (1975), 23-30.

B.C. Postow, “Women and Masculine Sports” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 7 (1980), 51-58.

Craig Lehman, “Can Cheaters Play the Game?” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 8 (1981), 41-46.

Warren P. Fraleigh, Right Actions in Sport:  Ethics for Contestants (Champaign, IL:  Human Kinetics, 1984).

William J. Morgan, Leftist Theories of Sport: A Critique and Reconstruction (Chicago:  U. of Illinois Press, 1994).

Drew A. Hyland, Philosophy of Sport (New York:  Paragon House, 1990); Heather L. Reid, The Philosophical Athlete (Durham, NC:  Carolina Academic Press, 2002).

R. Scott Kretchmar, Practical Philosophy of Sport (Champaign, IL:  Human Kinetics, 1994).

Sheryle Bergman Drewe, Why Sport? (Toronto:  Thompson, 2003).

William J. Morgan, Klaus V. Meier, and Angela, J. Schneider, editors.  Ethics in Sport ( Champaign, IL:  Human Kinetics, 2001) with a second edition in 2007; 

Mike McNamee, “Sport, Ethics and Philosophy:  Context, History and Prospects” Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 1:1 (2007): 5.

Heather L. Reid, “Athletic virtue:  between East and West,” Sport Ethics and Philosophy 4:1 (2010): 16-26.

Mike McNamee, Sports, Virtues and Vices (Routledge, 2008)

William J;. Morgan, Why Sports Morally Matter (New York: Routledge, 2006).