Sport, Rules and Values: Philosophical Investigations into the Nature of Sport(Ethics and Sport)

Sport, Rules and Values presents a philosophical perspective on some issues concerning the character of sport. Central questions for the text are motivated from 'real life' sporting examples as described in newspaper reports. For instance, the (supposed) subjectivity of umpiring decisions is explored via an examination of the judging of ice-skating at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games of 2002. Throughout, the presentation is rich in concrete cases from sporting situations, including cricket, baseball, American football, and soccer. While granting the constitutive nature of the rules of sport, discussion focuses on three broad uses commonly urged for rules: in defining sport; in judging or assessing sport (as deployed by judges or umpires); and in characterising 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. Overall, this work exemplifies the dependence of philosophical considerations of sport on ideas from philosophy more generally. The book's argumentative structures originate in the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein without explicitly being an exposition of those ideas. It views philosophy as addressing the specific issues of particular persons, rather than approaching perennial problems. The result is a distinctive and appealing conception both of sport and of its philosophical investigation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Sport, rules and values PART ONE: Rules in Explaining Sport 1. Definiteness and defining sport 2. Rule-following and formalism in sport 3. Rule-following and rule-formulations 4. Practices and normativity in sport PART TWO: Rules in Judging Sport 5. Aesthetic sports, publicity and judgement-calls 6. Principles and the application of rules 7. Spoiling, cheating and playing the game PART THREE: Rules in Valuing Sport 8. The project of a 'moral laboratory'; and particularism 9. The value of sport 10. Relativism, objectivity and truth Conclusion: Sport, rules and philosophy.

About the Author :
Graham McFee is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Brighton; and Vice President of the British Society of Aesthetics. He has written and presented extensively, both nationally and internationally, on the philosophy of Wittgenstein and on aesthetics, especially the aesthetics of dance.