Transcript Fair Play as the Logic of Sport

OLYMPISM:
ETHICAL ISSUES
The last of a series of three Gresham lectures,
in the run-up to the London Olympic Games 2012,
that consider the ethical and political values
of the Olympic Movement,
and their educational application.
Prof Dr Jim Parry
Charles University in Prague
'Olympism'
not just the elite athlete, but everyone
not just a short truce period, but the
whole of life
not just competition and winning, but also
the values of participation and cooperation
not just sport as an activity, but also as a
formative and developmental influence
Olympism 2
a universal social philosophy which
emphasises the role of sport:
in world development
international understanding
peaceful co-existence
social and moral education.
Philosophical anthropology
The philosophical anthropology of Olympism
promotes the ideals of:
individual all round harmonious development
towards excellence and achievement
through effort in competitive sporting activity
under conditions of mutual respect, fairness,
justice and equality
with a view to creating lasting personal human
relationships of friendship;
international relationships of peace, toleration
and mutual understanding;
and cultural alliances with the arts
Concept of Sport
• physical (effort)
not chess
• contest (‘contract to contest’ - competition
not mountaineering
and excellence)
• rule-governed (fair play, equality and justice)
not field sports
• institutionalised (‘lawful authority’)
not hula-hooping
• shared values and commitments (respect)
Olympism 3
The ‘thin’ values underpinning the rule
structures of sport include:
fairness
equality
respect for others
rule-adherence
contract-keeping
Olympism 4
In addition, the ethos of Olympism emphasises values of:
friendship
mutual understanding
peace
respect for others’ cultures
And sporting practices bring awareness of possibilities of:
international co-operation
mutual respect and mutual valuing
Fair Play
The essence of Olympic sport is ethical competition, and
THIS is what produces personal and social goods.
So: Olympism = ethical sport as an educative influence
And the basis of all of this is the idea of Fair Play, usually
thought of as:
a virtue of rule-adherence
a ‘spirit of sport’ leading to super-erogatory actions
a general attitude towards sport (and even life itself)
involving respect for others, modesty in victory, serenity
in defeat and generosity towards others
a behavioural ideal for moral education
Fair Play as the Logic of Sport
The primary nature of fair play in sport is:
•
•
•
•
not as a moral requirement of virtue,
nor an exhortation to behave well (in moral terms),
nor as a Weltanschauung
nor as an educational tool
but rather as a logically necessary feature of successful
engagement in the contest
i.e. you can’t have sport without fair play! (cp. a traffic system)
Fair Play as the Logic of Sport
To freely choose to be accepted into a community of sport
practice entails a contractual obligation to duly respect
the rules of the practice/institution, as its lawful authority.
To subvert such a contract to contest:
• threatens the moral basis of sport,
• jeopardises the integrity of the sporting community
• erodes public support and trust.
i.e. you will destroy sport
(the very thing that gives you a platform!)
(the very thing you pretend to value!)
Self-defeating, self-contradictory behaviour –
borderline
Ethical Issue 1 - Doping
What’s wrong with doping?
The usual answers:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
drugs enhance performance
drugs allow athletes to train harder
drugs are unnatural
they coerce others to use them
they are harmful
they are illegal
Ethical Issue 1 - Doping
So: What IS wrong with doping?
it threatens the ethical basis of sport
it abrogates the pre-competition agreement
(the contract to contest) without which we
can't have sport.
(See BOA vs WADA, with a judgement to be
decided on March 12th.)
Ethical Issue 2 - Gambling
Dist btw sport-fraud and gambling-fraud
Match-fixing can be one, the other, or both!
Besiktas looks like sport-fraud
Le Tissier/K Froch are gambling-fraud
(but with a risk also of sport-fraud?)
Nobbling a horse is both
Dist btw illegal/irregular/unregulated betting
Sports authorities are (only?) against unregulated betting.
Why? Because they can’t profit from that!
Beware sport/gambling symbiosis – better regulation, please!
Gambling: Cheating to Lose?
Cheating = rule-breaking to gain advantage?
(A sport-cheat cheats to win.)
So is it ‘cheating’ if done for betting-gain?
(Yes? - it has the potential to affect the outcome?)
No? – it’s not cheating at football, if cheating is seeking a
football-advantage. He’s cheating at gambling! (It’s gamblingfraud, not sport-fraud.)
‘Cheating to lose’ is only possible because, in gambling,
one can win one thing (the bet) by losing another (the game).
Ethical Issue 3 - Amateurism
Anglo-amateurism = keep workers out!
(a class-based conspiracy –
sports clubs were ‘gentlemen’s clubs’)
Was not De Coubertin’s idea of amateurism:
extrinsic goals tempt us from ethical sport
intrinsic aims reject questionable means
Fair or Temple?
Ethical Issue 4 - Violence
Dist between aggression and violence
Aggression: taking forceful means to your ends
Violence:
intending to harm
So, you can be as aggressive as you like, but so long as
you do not intend or risk harm, that’s non-violent.
And rules of team games reflect this distinction.
Football and rugby permit any level of aggression,
until/unless it threatens to harm, then it’s illegal.
{Dist btw an act of violence and a violent act?}
Ethical Issue 5 - Deception
How can sport be morally educative,
when we teach children to deceive?
(Feinting, dummying are just good tactics, right?)
But isn’t deception also part of cheating?
(Breaking a rule secretly …)
Dist btw two different kinds of deception:
– within the rules
– constitutive skills of the sport
Definitional Deception – going against the rules
Strategic Deception
Conclusion
What do all of these examples show?
That it is Fair Play, seen as the internal logic of
sport, that provides the rationale for
distinguishing good from bad practice:
permissible from impermissible actions.
Fair Play, the basis of the logic of sport, is also the
foundation-stone of the ethics of sport.