Sport and ethics: how far can you go?

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between sport and ethics from comparative and conceptual perspectives by examining key concepts in (competitive) sport on the one hand and ethics on the other. This is done by focusing on a distinctive methodological question through which certain features of both sport and ethics can be compared. This distinctive question asks, “How far can you go?” The key concepts introduced for understanding (competitive) sport reside in the phenomenological structure of sport. Three different aspects of this structure are distinguished. The analysis from the ethical perspective focuses on the two questions; what do we actually believe morality to be, and how do we normally try to justify something as being morally good or right? By aligning these meta-ethical issues with the overarching question in this paper, illuminating differences are traced on how morality is understood in the context of (competitive) sport. The main conclusion is that ethics in sport tend too often to be based on an impoverished and narrow view of morality, which deals only with surface rules, categories of acts and mechanics of control.