Sport and Art

Sport and Art is a study of the relationship between sport, art and philosophy. It argues that sport, like art, should be understood as a important culture practice through which human beings struggle to come to terms with such philosophical and metaphysical concerns as fate, chance and human free will.

This book was published as

Sport and Art explores relationship of sport to art. It does not argue that sport is one of the arts, but rather that sport and art hold common ground. Both are ways in which humans confront philosophical challenges, though they do this through very different media. While art deploys sensual media such as paint or sound, sport is the pursuit of a physical challenge at which the athlete may fail. This is to propose, in an argument that has its roots in Hegel's aesthetics, that sport may be interpreted as a way of reflecting upon metaphysical and normative issues, such as the nature of human freedom, fate and chance, and even our sense of space and time. This argument is developed by proposing the concept of a 'sportworld', an 'atmosphere of theory' and a 'knowledge of history' through which an event is interpreted and thereby constituted as sport. Ultimately, Sport and Art argues that in order to be truly appreciated, sport must be understood within a modernist aesthetics. That is to say that sport is not about beauty, but rather about the struggle to find meaning in sporting triumph and crucially sporting failure.

This book was published as a special issue of Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.

Autorentext

Andrew Edgar is a Reader in Philosophy at Cardiff University. His teaching and research are grounded in the German philosophical tradition. Apart from a monograph on Jürgen Habermas, he has published numerous books and articles in the philosophy of health care and the philosophy of sport.

Klappentext

Sport and Art explores relationship of sport to art. It does not argue that sport is one of the arts, but rather that sport and art hold common ground. Both are ways in which humans confront philosophical challenges, though they do this through very different media. While art deploys sensual media such as paint or sound, sport is the pursuit of a physical challenge at which the athlete may fail. This is to propose, in an argument that has its roots in Hegel's aesthetics, that sport may be interpreted as a way of reflecting upon metaphysical and normative issues, such as the nature of human freedom, fate and chance, and even our sense of space and time. This argument is developed by proposing the concept of a 'sportworld', an 'atmosphere of theory' and a 'knowledge of history' through which an event is interpreted and thereby constituted as sport. Ultimately, Sport and Art argues that in order to be truly appreciated, sport must be understood within a modernist aesthetics. That is to say that sport is not about beauty, but rather about the struggle to find meaning in sporting triumph and crucially sporting failure.

This book was published as a special issue of Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.

Zusammenfassung
Sport and Art is a study of the relationship between sport, art and philosophy. It argues that sport, like art, should be understood as a important culture practice through which human beings struggle to come to terms with such philosophical and metaphysical concerns as fate, chance and human free will. This book was published as

Inhalt

1. Sport and Art: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Sport 2. Sport and Philosophy 3. Sportworld 4. The Birth of Sport 5. The Aesthetics of Sport 6. The Beauty of Sport 7. The Modernism of Sport 8. A Hermeneutics of Sport 9. Conclusion