Abstract
(1) Background: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) utilizes three criteria to include a technology in the List of Banned Substances and Methods—performance enhancement, health, and the spirit of sport. The latter is arguably the most fundamental one, as WADA justifies the anti-doping mission by appealing to it. (2) Method: Given the interrelationship among the notions of “human nature,” “natural talent,” and “sport,” I investigate what view of human nature underpins the “spirit of sport” criterion. To do so, I focus on both WADA’s official documents and scholarly formulations of the spirit of sport (that align with that of WADA). (3) Results: I show that the value attributed to excellence and effort in WADA’s formulation of the “spirit of sport” criterion has its roots in the notion of human nature of the work ethic that resulted from the secularization of the Protestant ethic. (4) Conclusion: Drawing on my analysis of the “spirit of sport” criterion, I pose critical questions concerning the justification of WADA’s anti-doping campaign and a tentative solution to move forward in the debate.
Highlights
I have examined the “spirit of sport” criterion on which World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) relies to justify the ban on performance-enhancing technologies
By analyzing the connection between anti-doping and the notion of the “natural,” I have identified the view of human nature that underpins the “spirit of sport”
By reviewing WADA’s official documents and scholarly works articulating the WADA’s notion of the “spirit of sport,” I have shown that WADA’s justification for anti-doping has its roots in the notion of human nature of the work ethic that resulted from the secularization of the Protestant ethic
Summary
In Defining Reality: Definitions and the politics of meaning, Edward Schiappa [1] (p. 21), argues that concepts are like “road maps” that help to navigate reality by presenting it in a specific way. In a more extreme version of this approach, sport is regarded as an arena for humans to push human limits further [5,6] In these conceptions of sport, the exercise of freedom is the defining trait of human nature. For such higher levels have been reached through corrupt means As it was stated above, the restrictive approach to human nature and sport underpins anti-doping policy. In this article, following the methodology deployed in the Nuffield Council of Bioethics’ analysis paper mentioned above, I explore the public debate on doping in order to locate the values at the core of the restrictive view of human nature and sport. Questions regarding the Protestant, work-based philosophical notion of human nature underpinning the anti-doping initiative and briefly propose a tentative way to move forward in the debate (Section 5). I conclude with a summary of the main points made throughout the article (Section 6)
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