Philosophy of Sport class

This class overall was somewhat interesting but also not always the most productive in discsussion because there is so much bias that comes with the subject of sports. The point was made in class that maybe there are not so many philosophers of sport because those who study sport work actively in the sports field, coaching, writing, commentating, being part of a program, or are athletes themselves. I would agree with this and add to this that everyone has grown up with their favorite sport and their dispositions and much of the philosophy of sport is just opinion based on experience. Learning about play in general and thinking about how people act in sports was interesting and hearing other people's opinions on basic things that never really get discussed (like cheating, spoilsports, athletes as heroes etc) was valuable. To be forced to think about something that is so much a part of everyday culture and take it apart was a good thing, but again many discussions ended up being circular because people had set opinions that were biased by their feelings about a sport (people said they did not believe race car driving was a sport because they didnt like it). All in all, I am glad I got to think about sport in a more detailed context and I feel it will help me as an athlete, a spectator, and a thinker along the way.

Huizinga: We all need play

It is comforting to get some acknowledgement that play is an “interlude in life,” but it is also “integral to life.[1]” I completely agree that everyone needs play in their life, the interruption of daily life and the real world that is not so nice all of the time. No matter how grown up someone is, play is so necessary in maintaining sanity, especially in this day and age. We live in a society obsessed with work and money and business and material wealth, when really, what makes people most happy is going to that baseball game one time a year or playing with a small child in a park....Huizinga notes that play is completely seperate from other areas of life, but it is just as important. It is not a component of survival, like food or water, but is something that all humans experience,and inherently do. I want to always know that it is ok to play, and that even in graduating college and going out to work, that the real world is not the only thing I have to look forward to.

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[1] Huizinga, J. “Nature and Significance of Play,” 8