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Podcast
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What is the meaning of athletic competition and how should we
understand its prominence in our society? Is victory the chief criterion of
success or are other values significant? Does it play a moral role in our
society? Can it teach us something? Is competition beautiful? Can we justify the
enormous investments made in our professional and amateur sporting enterprises?
What precisely is the satisfaction gained by athletic achievement?
Paul Gaffney regards athletic competition as a basic but positive
type of human relationship. It is neither a friendship nor an instance of
enmity: competitors do not seek each other’s “good,” as friends do, but they do
not wish to destroy the other. They are not enemies. What they seek – what
competitors need each other for – may not be available except through
competition. Therefore, a certain paradox emerges: a competitor does everything
he or she can, within the rules of the encounter, to frustrate the efforts of
the other, yet he or she needs the other to respond to the challenge and give
the competition its meaning and worth. This suggests that the athletic
engagement, far from being just a preparation for, or a reflection of “real”
world struggles, is actually an activity that we need to make sense of an
increasingly human, honest, and meaningful society.
Paul Gaffney is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at
St. John’s University, NY, and Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at
John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. In 1997 he was named St. John’s College of
Liberal Arts Professor of the Year by Student Government. He has published many
articles and reviews on topics such as Ethics, Law, Education, and Sport. A
former college basketball player at Niagara University, he is currently working
on a book entitled The Competition Ideal: The Structure and Meaning of
Antagonistic Relationships.
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