IAPS 2004 Abstracts of Papers

IAPS 2004 Abstracts of Papers

Anderson, RussellThe Holy Shiver: A Spiritual Feature of Sport

Breivik, GunnarThe constitution of world and temporality in risk sportsA Heideggerian interpretation

Culbertson, LeonThe Paradox of Bad Faith and Elite Competitive Sport

Dench, Linda NaylorFemale Athletes’ Perceptions of Archetypology and Typology

Dixon, NickThe Interpretation and Morality of Symbols in Sport

Eassom, SimonThe Sporting Contract

Elcombe, TimReason and Technology in Sport:A Pragmatic Criticism and Reconstruction

Fry, JeffFaith, Hope, and Love in Sports

Fukasawa, KoyoThe meaning of competition in sport education: on the relationship betw een competition and cooperation

Gaffney, PaulThe Meaning of Sport: Competition as a Form of Language

Grassbaugh-Forry, JoanFoucault and the Discipline of Sport: Implications for Female Athletes and Femininity

Hamilton, MarkPost-play or Post-game Festivity in Sport: Making Distinctions Between Celebration or Partying?

Hochstetler, PhD Douglas R.Running and Place: Significance on the treadmill?

Hopsicker, Peter M.The Silent Understanding: Unwritten Rules of Sport and the Goals of Education

Ilundain-Agurruza, JesusBetween the Horns: a dilemma in the interpretation of the running of the Bulls

Kelley, SeanFrom Aesthetics to the Kine-Aesthetic Being: Returning to a sensory/perceptual understanding of sport participation

Kretchmar, R. ScottGame Flaws

Loland, SigmundSex Classes in Sport – An Ethical Analysis

McLaughlin, DouglasTruth and Certainty in Sporting Contest Resolutions

Morgan, BillSport as a Source of Moral Identity

Mumford, StephenWatching Sport

Nendel, JimTranscendental Surfing

Pawlenka, ClaudiaBetween Naturalness and Artificiality: The Ban on Doping in Sports and its Philosophic-Ethical Justification

Reid, HeatherApollo vs. Poseidon Can the Ancient Ideal of Justice Survive Modern Olympic Realities?

Rintala, JanAnnika at the Colonial: Exposing the Many Meanings of Sport

Ritterskamp, EllynGames People Play (And Why They Should Play Them)

Ryall, EmilyWhereof What One Cannot Speak, One Must Remain Silent: A Wittgensteinian Perspective on the Ethics of Genetic Technology in Sport

Sheridan, HeatherSport and human potential: an ethical discussion

Stoll, Sharon Kay Exercise Adherence? The role that sport philosophy can play

Beller, Jennifer, Rickel, Karenin developing pedagogical practice

Teetzel, SarahTesting for the Genetic Enhancements in Athletes

Torres, Cesar R. &Justice and Evaluation in Sport: The Case of the Bonus Point

Peter HagerSystem.

Tracey, JillPhilosophy In Action: Consulting with Athletes from a Phenomenological Perspective– Is There Any Other Way?

Vossen, Deborah P.Grasshopper Versus Grasshoper: Toward a Formal Theory of Competitive Games

Weaving, Charlene“I’m too sexy for this sport…it hurts”: An examination of the connection between sex and sport.

1. Anderson, Russell

Bates College, USA

The Holy Shiver: A Spiritual Feature of Sport

In his article “Competitive Sport’s Imitation of War: Imagining the Completeness of Virtue,” Norman Fischer discusses how sport, by “transformation of the context of a contest,” redefines and revises the meanings of the features of competition. In this paper, I will follow Fischer’s lead in addressing a particular phenomenon that occurs in both combat and athletic competition—what the romantic German poets call the heilige Schauer or “holy shiver.” This phenomenon constitutes a spiritual element of competition that accompanies the physicality of athletic contests. Some scholars and scientists seem quick to dismiss athletics and athletic competition as mere physical goods—healthful exercises of the body and perhaps even the brain. Ask any athlete, however, and most who have engaged in competitive sports will tell you that the physicality is accompanied by a spiritual component that is, in fact, an integral part of athletic experience. This component is to be found in experience and is best addressed phenomenologically. My aim here, then, is to take up a phenomenological description of the “holy shiver” as experienced within the transformed context of athletic competition as a way of disclosing this spiritual component and of assessing its import for performance and life.

In his work On Aggression, German psychoanalyst Konrad Lorenz introduced his concept of “militant enthusiasm” which he used to explain the detached air that can supposedly turn a peaceful man into a [bloodthirsty] killer in the heat of battle. One component of this strictly scientific theory dealt with the “rush” of adrenaline known to the German poets as the heilige Schauer or “Holy shiver,” which seemed to incite heroic bearing and, consequently, heroic actions in men engaged in physical conflict. It is my intention to suggest that, though this “holy shiver” might have dire results on the lawless battlefield, it acts as an indicator of a desirable spiritual union between body and soul when experienced in the controlled environment of competitive athletics. This desirable union can have the dual effect of enhancing the immediate performance and opening the athlete to another meaning of competition.

As background to my account of the “holy shiver” I define spirit, or soul, in its most traditional sense as the dynamic force of an individual--“the sum total of those components of ‘self’ that are neither grounded in the physical nor cognitive capabilities or tendencies of a person.” The self I take to be more Greek than Cartesian; it is not a duality of mind and body, but a living integration of forces intellectual, physical, and spiritual. Against this background, the “holy shiver” is to be reduced neither to mere physical phenomenon nor to sheer mystical mystery. It is a phenomenon both spiritual and physical that transforms the whole self. The poets first coined the term heilige Schauer to describe the tingling rush of energy that instilled men with courage and made them capable of great feats in battle. The description is a succinct but beautiful one, the words carefully chosen. “Holy” the experience seemed, for it allowed men to do things physically they would otherwise be incapable of, as if they were aided by some divine strength. In this sense it was deemed a spiritual experience. A “shiver,” on the other hand, is a very physical experience—it is commonly associated with a natural reaction to cold or described as a physical manifestation of fear. Thus, referring to this ennobling adrenaline rush as the “holy shiver” elegantly suggests its integrative nature. Drawing on performances in athletic competition—especially in baseball and volleyball, I will try to exemplify this integrating and transforming experience.

In developing my phenomenological description of the “holy shiver,” I will draw on John Stuart Mill’s notion of an “intermediate good,” one that stands between the lower goods that pertain essentially to the body and the higher goods of the pure intellect. As a spiritual phenomenon, the “holy shiver” integrates all the elements of the self, mediating among them and enabling the whole self to be transformed at once. I will also focus on two related theses: 1) that this shiver creates the possibility of enhanced performance through its transformative work and 2) that, on reflection, it also stands as a source of potential spiritual insight for the athlete who experiences it. Thus, it not only transforms the self in the competitive setting but also transforms the self through the act of competing. In both cases, athletic competition accompanied by the heilige Schauer reveals itself as much more than physical contest.

2. Breivik, Gunnar

Norwegian University of Sport

The constitution of world and temporality in risk sports

A heideggerian interpretation

In my paper I will try to interpret some aspects of sky diving and climbing with some of the tools and the frame given in Heidegger’s analysis of “being–in–the-world” (Dasein) in Being and Time. This project may seem both daring and pretentious. I will try to be cautious and modest. There are two topics that I will concentrate on. One is Heidegger’s analysis of the human daily life condition where tings are at hand as tools, “Zuhandenheit” in German. I will analyze the first few jumps in sky diving where things are not at hand, where the void is breaking up “the world” and where one feels deeply confused. In a sense the “being–in–the–void” is a liminal, extreme case of “being-in-the-world” and therefore worth using as a test case for the different elements that together forms the “Zuhandenheit” condition. I will compare this with climbing where the situation is less extreme but where the needed grips and holds may be out of reach or simply not there. I will try to give a phenomenological description of how the function of body, tools and surroundings in sports like climbing and sky diving nevertheless constitute a totality, a “world” in Heidegger’s terms.

In the second part of my paper I will analyse Heidegger’s notion of temporality in relation to sport. I will use climbing and sky diving as examples since there are interesting differences between these sports in how the temporality functions. Heidegger sees existential time as a dynamic unity and interplay of past, future and present. In Heidegger’s analysis the affectedness of the past (Befintlichkeit) is carried into the projects of future, in our understanding of ourselves in the world (Verstehen). And the future and our projects, guide us in relation to how we “fall” into our daily activities and get engaged in the present situation Verfallen). In sky diving we commit ourselves totally when we jump out of the plane. It is not possible to turn back. In climbing it is possible to turn back to safety in many cases. This means that the future has a different meaning in the two sports. This again influences how the past is integrated and how one reacts to the present situation. I will try describe more in detail these variations in temporality and I will show how temporality for Heidegger is the ultimate structure and “meaning” of the Zuhandenheit condition.

3. Culbertson, Leon

Edge Hill College, UK

The Paradox of Bad Faith and Elite Competitive Sport

The issues of technology, the scientific manufacturing of athletes, elitism and the performance principle in sport have received much attention in recent philosophy of sport literature (Miah 2004; Munthe 2000; Schneider and Butcher 2000; Tännsjö 2000; Tamburrini 2000; Loland 2000 and Hoberman 1992 and 1995). In all this work the issue of the self-deception which both emerges from and facilitates such practices as the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport, strict adherence to extreme training and dietary regimes and the adoption of a technological attitude to the sporting body has remained unconsidered.

In an initial attempt to begin to rectify that omission this paper considers Hoberman’s (1992 and 1995) critique of the technological attitude in elite sport paying particularly close attention to Hoberman’s use of the work of Heidegger on technology. The paper argues that while Hoberman’s critique is powerful and of considerable value, it is ultimately incomplete because Hoberman emphasises the ideological nature of the problem and this leads him to locate the difficulty in the dominance of the technological attitude and the lack of an adequate alternative. Hoberman does not appreciate the degree to which athletes are responsible for their own deception.

The paper argues that the notion of bad faith, a particular form of self-deception, described in the early work of Jean-Paul Sartre helps us understand the role of the athlete in the forms of self-deception that are found in elite competitive sport. Any discussion of self-deception encounters a paradox: How is it possible for an individual to believe that something is true and yet know that it is untrue? The solution offered by Sartre rests on a complex phenomenological ontology, but it is argued here that close consideration of Sartre’s use of language can assist in dissolving the paradox.

Is there something about sport that promotes self-deception more readily than other social practices? While the paper argues (following McFee 1998 and 2004) that there is no essence of sport, it is maintained that the way much elite competitive sport is conducted does lead to a greater incidence of self-deception (in the form of bad faith) than other social practices, including those which are overtly competitive and performance-orientated. It is argued that the dominance of the performance principle and the accompanying logic of progress found in elite sport, when added to the emphasis on the body, quantification, competition, and the notions of fair play and the level playing field lead to elite sport having a rare combination of features which facilitate bad faith.

4. Dench, Linda Naylor

Temple University, USA

Female Athletes’ Perceptions of Archetypology and Typology

The reality that a societal bifurcation of the sexes has created two different experiences of sport in the Western world has generated empirical inquiry into gender constructs. Societal ascriptions of instrumental/agentic traits predominately to males, and expressive/communal traits to females have been challenged, particularly in the domain of sport (Del Rey, 1978; Duquin, 1978; Sandoz & Winans, 1999; Oglesby, 1978). Some researchers have concluded that sport participation has facilitated the development of androgyny in women (Duquin, 1978; Oglesby, 1978).

Since its inception, androgyny has been primary in Jungian concept (Jung, 1951; Robertson, 1995, Singer, 1976; Stevens, 1995; von Franz, 1980). A review of the literature of sport psychology and clinical psychology, however, revealed that analytical principles have rarely been utilized empirically in sport. In the present study, three areas of Jungian theory have been explored to augment this limited utilization: 1) archetypology, 2) typology, and 3) androgyny.

Androgyny, a psychological bisociation of masculine and feminine energy, has recently achieved a measure of societal acceptance. Paradoxically, though some researchers have observed that misogyny is a dominant value in sport, it has been theorized that the greatest potential for the development of androgyny in females is through sport.

Additionally, this research has attempted to empirically identify androcentric cultural myths. Jungian postulates have likewise questioned such myths. Central to Jung’s work has been the hypothesis of personal psychological growth through the process of individuation. Postulates of the individuation process are theorized to inform bisociative aspects of integrating dualistic psychological sexual energies.

Phase I involved a quantitative study of fifty (50) to seventy-five (75) female athlete members of collegiate teams, sport clubs, or who self-identified as an athlete. This original sample completed the Myer Briggs Typology Indicator (MBTI), the Rank Order of Archetypes (ROA), & the Goddess Within Questionnaire (GWQ). From this pool, ten (10) athletes were selected for Phase II, consisting of a retest of the ROA and GWQ, and two one-hour interviews utilizing qualitative methodology.

The interviews were based on postmodern and poststructuralist theories. They probed the following: 1) feminine archetypology as a lived experience, 2) typology as a phenomenological experience, 3) gender beliefs and personality, and 4) gender beliefs and archetypology

Consistent with previous research (Ullyot & Myers, 1994), it was anticipated that: 1) archetypologically, selected female athletes would report an identification with Artemis, distinct from other archetypes of the feminine, to a statistically significant degree, 2) typologically, female athletes would report statistically significantly higher sensation and judging functions in the MBTI as compared with the general population of females, and 3) a strong reported identification with Artemis would correlate statistically significantly with a reported affirmation of the construct of androgyny. Further, the qualitative interview would yield rich, psychologically in-depth narratives of selected female athletes’ inner constructions relating to archetypology, typologies, gender and sport.

5. Dixon, Nick

Alma College, USA

The Interpretation and Morality of Symbols in Sport

This paper is an examination of the morality of the use of two kinds of symbols in sport: (1) controversial symbols of support for teams, including Native American mascots and the Confederate flag; and (2) the verbal symbols involved in trash talking and other forms of spoken intimidation. For many Native Americans and African Americans, as well for liberal white Americans, displaying Native mascots and the Confederate flag is deeply offensive. For them, the innocent intentions of people who display these symbols cannot rid it of its objectionable connotations.

However, in his recent JPS article (Vol. XXVIII, Issue 1, 2001), “Philosophical Aspects of Sports Symbolism,” C.D. Herrera warns against simplistic criticisms of such symbols. He argues that adjudicating between the rival connotations of the confederate flag—the school spirit and southern pride intended by those who display it at athletic events, versus the outrage experienced by those who associate it with support of slavery—is very difficult. Symbols can change their meaning over time and the question of which interpretation of their meaning is correct may be unanswerable. In the case of using the Confederate flag and Native mascots at sporting events, then, what we might call “subjectivism about symbols in sport” does have some plausibility.

Nonetheless, even if we concede for the sake of argument that whether a particular mascot or flag is objectively demeaning is indeterminate, we are assuredly not committed to a subjectivist approach to the morality of displaying such symbols. Given the relatively trivial, easily replaceable pleasures that sports fans gain from these symbols, compared with the deep offense that they cause to racial minorities, we should refrain from using them.

Another use of symbols that is widely condemned in the philosophy of sport literature is trash talking or other types of verbal intimidation. A common defense of the practice by the athletic community is that athletes don’t really mean to insult their opponents. In the context of a sporting contest, say apologists for trash talking, athletes understand that it is no more than an attempt, often light-hearted, to unsettle opponents and gain a competitive edge. Parallel to my critique of offensive mascots and flags, I will support the conventional critique of trash talking by arguing that the absence of malicious intent cannot rob demeaning and insulting language of its morally unacceptable connotations. Moreover, in the case of such language, no plausible case can be made that the meaning of these words has changed over time, robbing them of their objectionable connotations.