ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a selective examination of the diverse works on this subject to trace and illustrates the place of pleasure and happiness within the historical development of Western culture. The chapter aims to reveal the enduring social significance of pleasure and some of its seemingly nebulous characteristics and it highlights that pleasures have been understand as diverse, socially constructed, productive, political and tied to existential issues, the body and the arts of living a 'good life'. Drawing from Aristotle's ethics, one could potentially live a 'good life' through participation in sport, but only if the participation has been rationally considered and if the sport is performed at a high standard and in accordance with the excellence appropriate to it. The critical aims of the selective scholars reviewed in the chapter can be conceptualized as broadly similar to what most contemporary critical researchers strive for; that is, the desire to offer critique and advocacy to improve quality of life.
