ABSTRACT
Sport, Rules and Values presents a philosophical perspective on issues concerning the character of sport. Discussion focuses on three broad uses commonly urged for rules: to define sport; to judge or assess sport performance; and to characterize the value of sport - especially if that value is regarded as moral value. In general, Sport, Rules and Values rejects a conception of the determinacy of rules as possible within sport (and a parallel picture of the determinacy assumed to be required by philosophy). Throughout, the presentation is rich in concrete cases from sport, including cricket, baseball, American football, soccer and ice-skating.
Detailed consideration of some ideas from classics in the philosophy of sport, especially writings by Bernard Suits and William Morgan, contextualizes this discussion. Overall, this work exemplifies the dependence of philosophical considerations of sport on ideas from philosophy more generally. Thus it sketches, for example, the contrast between rules and principles, an account of the occasion-sensitivity of understanding, and the place of normative and motivating reasons within practical reasoning.
Sport, Rules and Values represents a distinctive conception, both of sport and of its philosophical investigation, which will appeal to all those with an interest in philosophy and ethics of sport.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |71 pages
Rules in explaining sport
chapter |18 pages
Definiteness and defining sport
chapter |20 pages
Rule-following and formalism in sport
chapter |19 pages
Rule-following and rule-formulations
chapter |12 pages
Practices and normativity in sport
part |42 pages
Rules in judging sport
chapter |14 pages
Aesthetic sports, publicity and judgement calls
chapter |11 pages
Principles and the application of rules
chapter |15 pages
Spoiling, cheating and playing the game
part |50 pages
Rules in valuing sport