Kin 405 - Chapter 8 review
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Chapter 8 – Sport, Moral Education, and Social Responsibility
-Morality and Sport
-Reductionist Thesis
-Inner Morality of Sport
-Sport and Moral Education
-Sport and Moral Responsibility
-Coaching
-Spectating
-Athletes as Role Models
-Sport, Violence, and Respect for Competitors
-Vulnerability and Contact Sports
Morality and Sports
-The broader social implication of sport
-Can sports play a significant role in broader moral development?
-Should sports play a significant role in moral development?
-Do sports reflect moral decline or positive moral influences?
-Do sports have an important (positive) role to play in our moral lives?
The Reductionist Thesis
-Values in sports
-reflections and reinforce values in broader society
-expressions of the dominant social values
-reflect back of prevailing social values and reinforce commitment to them in broader culture (values that we develop in sport serve to reinforce those broader social values)
-Reductionist theory (externalism):
-explanatory: values in sport explained by values in society (description of what the theory is about)
-normative: worth and justification of values in sport no different than worth and justification in society at large
-football: militaristic, capitalistic, egoistic
-Objection: sports often express values counter to prevailing moral beliefs
-overcoming racial prejudice in basketball
-violence sanctioned by rules or implicitly accepted (boxing/MMA, football)
(difference between the values, can be good/bad, not perfect match)
Inner Morality of Sport
-inner morality
-certain values are central to competitive sports
-person interested in success in sporting context has strong reason to act upon values
-these values may conflict with dominant social values
-internal values
-good internal to an activity when cannot be understood or enjoyed independently of that activity (no other means of achieving or securing that value other than through participation in that activity itself)
-Strong reasons (to accept inner morality): excellence, discipline, and dedication (in practice in sport itself); can use these values in other contexts other than sport but there is that distinction in showing these values in basketball which is different than doing other types of activities – different excellence, practice in sport than the excellence and discipline in other activities) -good reasons: respect for rules; rules function differently in sport than in other activities – we follow rules of law because we have to or else bad things will happen but follow rules in sport for different reason which is for the sake of that activity (gratuitous logic)
-(inner morality) seeks to exemplify: ethics of competition and demonstration of excellence (reason to accept the inner morality view rather than the reductionist external view)
-values of sport
-CAN (doesn’t have to) conflict with dominant social values
-not mere reflections of larger society’s values (can be distinct)
Sports and Moral Education
-(support inner morality)
-Should sports have a role in moral education?
-Problems:
-Partisanship: whose values should be taught?
-Indoctrination: imposes values without autonomous consent (young athletes)
-Response:
-clarify own values
-teach procedures of moral reasoning (form of how we go about moral reasoning rather than content; what moral reasons we should hold)
-Response – Problem: can lead to moral relativism? (people can believe whatever they want)
-Response: informal moral education
-inner morality of sport…can’t avoid teaching values
-teamwork, dedication, discipline, concern for excellence, respect for rules…(if we don’t have these in sport than can’t see sport in a meaningful way)
-VALUES ARE PRESUPPOSED BY AN ATTEMPT TO SUCEED IN COMPETITIVE
SPORTS -entirely appropriate to stress such values
-good reason to support them (to engage in a mutual quest for excellence)
-neutral (neither conservative or liberal)
-mild indoctrination…develop traits as part of social education, develop critical thinking, develop autonomy (quite different than forcing people to believe certain things)
-public education: promote and illustrate values that all would have reason to support (sport as a means to promote universal human values)
-Criticism: Still partisan – ideology of athletes overly competitive, egoistic, and conservative
-Response: discipline and respect for rules and others (being loyal to internal logic of sport is all that’s required) but not blind loyalty
-Criticism: Still indoctrination – do not explicitly discuss core moralities
-impost on students who are too young to make competent autonomous decisions (what moral framework they want to adopt)
-Response: indoctrination in pejorative sense and is this necessary?
-not all values can be autonomously adopted
-indoctrination is part of social process that develops critical thinking and autonomy
-commitment, discipline, respect for others and rules, and appreciation for excellence are presuppositions of moral development -Moral education of a limited sort is proper function of schools/organized athletics
-limited to promoting dispositions of mind and of character that can reasonably be regarded as prerequisites of the capacity to engage in autonomous critical inquiry with others (in order for us to be able to engage with others we need to have this foundation of
understanding in relationship)
-compatible with academic value and may enhance/reinforce them (those academic values)
Sports and Moral Responsibility
-Do individuals have special moral responsibilities?
Coaching and its Duties
-perform many duties
-evaluated on various factors/functions
-wins and loses
-promoting program
-recruiting
-keeping athletes eligible
-should be an alignment with duties and evaluation
-but functions can conflict (emphasis on winning rather than keeping athletes eligible)
-Overemphasize winning
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-de-emphasize academic role, integrating academic and athletic values, ensuring success of student athlete
-youth coaches: open path to good life
-balance participation with winning
-Treat players:
-with respect and concern
-not as a means (for coaches to secure their jobs through team wins)
-Social contract
-Coaches can expect athletes to be:
-dedicated,
-committed to learning,
-willing to abide by team policies
-athletes can expect coaches to:
-be focused on development
-know the game
-use appropriate teaching skills
(coach has moral applications to the athletes to fulfill functions of a moral coach)
Spectating and its Duties
-respect for all contestants (and coaches, referees, fellow spectators)
-recognize athletic excellence
-appreciate internal goods and standards of excellence
-not blind loyalty to team but criticize own team when does not abide by those standards
Should Athletes be Role Models?
-(yes athletes should be role models)
-athletes: have special responsibilities (?) to be good role models for rest of us
-particularly for youngsters who look up to them
-unusually greater influence than others which generates greater responsibility
-objections
-athletes should not be role models
-fans must be realistic
-hero worship is unrealistic
-why focus on athletes and not on other roles in society
-But athletes have a central place in society, does not require special training to appreciate
1. connection between sport and quest for excellence: intimate relationship between participation in athletics and ethics
2. broad accessibility of sport: athletes are held in high regard
-Therefore, athletes can do unusual harm through misbehavior because of the undue influence they exert
-inner morality of sport…athletes benefit from exhibition of virtues
-respect for other similar virtues off the field as well
-(because of the inner morality of sport, there is some expectations and the undue influence they exert, we should have some expectation of athletes being role models, there is some moral claim that they should do this)
Sport, Violence, and Respect for Fellow Competitors
-Some sports are ethically suspect
-boxing, MMA, and football are violent sports?
-what is violence? When is violence in sport unethical? Violence okay to protect yourself (justified) so when is violence justified in sport
-distinguish between:
1. use of physical force to achieve strategic advantage within the confines of a sport’s rules
2. use of force designed to injure or harm an opponent
-violence refers to #2…could be psychological or physical violence
-purpose of boxing and MMA to cause injury (?) therefore ethically problematic
Violence and Contact Sports
-football’s physical contact ok?
-if it is within the rules? Ok if within the rules
-critique:
-football is violent
-football encourages acceptance of officially sanctioned violence while discouraging external criticism of the game and official rules
-rules are given powerful ideological support…
-and are NOT neutral (biased in a conservative way as in keeping in the tradition of football as opposed to changing the game to a less physical sport)
-analysis
-is violence in football necessary OR contingent?
-physical force distinct from violence (not all physical force is violent)
-does the use of physical force take advantage of opponent’s physical vulnerability?
-brushback pitch in MLB vs. little league vs. recreational league
-hit on a “defenseless receiver” (what qualifies a receiver to be defenseless? Not taking advantage of an opponent’s physical vulnerability)
-Vulnerability Principle: players willing to bear risk, but:
-use of force against an opponent in an athletic contest is ethically defensible if the opponent is in a position and condition that a strategic response is possible and injury is unlikely to ensue (football players consent to a sport where they know physical force will
be applied on them and know how to act strategically to defend themselves)
Conclusion
-sport raises host of significant ethical issues
-values are intimately connected with sport (inner morality)
-in sport, we can develop and express moral virtues
-values of sport reinforce enduring human significance
-sport presupposes importance of standards
-distinguish between how should be played from degraded forms of play
-standards are arrived at through critical reflection
-there are justified standard of excellence (some standards are better than others)
-sport is a pursuit that leads to harmonious adjustment (human flourishing, arriving at the good life, the life most worth living through sport)
The authors present arguments that support the view that the true goal of business must be more than just the pursuit of profit. Businesses should operate with ethical boundaries and have fiduciary responsibilities. This is why corporations must pay attention to the internal values of sport and the broad values of public concern.
Even though the authors argue that intercollegiate sports can have desirable outcomes that are aligned with academic values, they DO NOT argue that intercollegiate sports should be required on campus. They even identify several elite universities that have dropped athletic programs or have severely limited athletic programs.
Review what the authors mean by the internal goods of a practice.
The authors do not argue for the elimination of proportionality in sex equity deliberations.
The corruption of intercollegiate sport is not inevitable. Given the current landscape, it may seem inevitable, but reform can address, minimize, and potentially eliminate corruption.
Quiz
1.
The authors believe that coaches in educational institutions ought to be evaluated more as
teachers than according to their won-and-lost record. True
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2.
The authors are convinced that the discussion throughout his book indicates that some values in sport are not necessarily reflections of a prevailing social order. True
3.
The authors strongly believe that athletes should behave like saints. False
4.
Discipline and dedication are central to competitive sport. True
5.
The authors argue for an elimination of proportionality in sex equity deliberations. False
6.
The authors think that, fundamentally, sport is no more (and probably no less) than a mirror of the ills of culture at large. False
7.
The corruption of intercollegiate sport is inevitable. False
8.
Goods are internal to a practice when they are unintelligible apart from that practice
.
9.
The “reductionistic thesis” faces a strong challenge in the fact that it is in itself the reflection of underlying and more fundamental social relationships and values. Therefore,
the thesis cannot claim objective truth. True
10. Which one of the following statements would the authors disagree with? The indoctrination that happens in sport prevents it from being a good platform for moral education
11. Reductionism can be understood as both an explanatory theory and a normative theory
.
12. For the authors, intercollegiate athletics are desirable and required on campus. False
13. For the authors the supreme imperative of a coach is to treat the players with concern and
respect and regard them as a mere means for self-promotion. False
14. The “inner morality of sport” is neutral in that it concerns values that all committed to its practice have good reason to support it.
True
15. According to the authors, having concern for ethical boundaries and fundamental values is not a responsibility of corporations involved in the business of sport. False
16. The major objection to the “reductionistic thesis” is that sports often seem to express values that go counter to prevailing moral beliefs. True
17. The authors advance a cluster of normative features that are so intimately connected with sports that they are internal to it; he calls this idea the “inner morality of sport.” Which of
the following is NOT a component of the “inner morality of sport”? External goods
18. Which one of the following is NOT true about the “reductionistic thesis” regarding the relationship between sports and values in the larger society? Sport modifies the values reigning in the broader society
19. One of the counterarguments to the notion that athletes ought to be role models says that because certain individuals have exceptional athletic talents, it does not logically follow that they have special moral obligations outside of competition as well. True
20. The authors believe that informal moral education is going on in the schools all the time. True