ABSTRACT
The characters begin by examining Paul Weiss’s claim that sport is the pursuit of bodily excellence. The pursuit of excellence appears to be central in the highest levels of competitive sport; however, Skylar argues that Weiss’s definition of sport is both too broad and too narrow. The discussion turns to Huizinga’s famous analysis of play, which, according to Skylar, offers a better explanation of the widespread appeal of sport. After discussing some central features of play, the characters examine Bernard Suits’s definition of a game. Suits believed that he had offered a correct classical conceptual analysis of the concept of a game. Pat suggests that Suits’s analysis of game playing is related to Huizinga’s analysis of play in some important ways. Suits also claims that there are four requirements for a game to be a sport, including one requirement that occasions questions about sports and institutions or institutionalized practices. The final part of the dialogue discusses Alisdair MacIntyre’s account of a “practice,” as well as the way in which sports and games provide narrative meaning to both participants and fans. Finally, Pat argues that there are five central concepts that help us understand the concept of sport: play, game, contest, physical action, and a practice.
