Sport and Moral Conflict: A Conventionalist Theory
by William J. Morgan
Temple University Press, 2020 Cloth: 978-1-4399-1539-4 | eISBN: 978-1-4399-1541-7 | Paper: 978-1-4399-1540-0 Library of Congress Classification GV706.3.M66 2020 Dewey Decimal Classification 175
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
What is the purpose of sport, and how are ethical conceptions of sport shaped by the answers to this question? In Sport and Moral Conflict, William Morgan investigates, examining sport as a moral crucible that puts athletes in competitive, emotionally charged situations where fairness and equality are contested alongside accomplishment.
Morgan looks at the modern Olympics—from 1906 Athens to 1924 Paris, when the Games reached international prestige — in order to highlight the debate about athletic excellence and the amateur-professional divide. Whereas the Americans emphasized winning, the Europeans valued a love of the game. Morgan argues that the existing moral theories of sport—formalism and broad internalism (aka interpretivism), which rely on rules and general principles—fall short when confronted with such a dispute as the transition from amateur to professional sport. As such, he develops a theory of conventionalism, in which the norms at work in athletic communities determine how players should ethically acquit themselves. Presenting his case for an ethical theory of sport, Morgan provides insights regarding the moral controversies and crises that persist today.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY William J. Morgan is Professor Emeritus, Division of Occupational Science and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. He is author of multiple books, most recently of Why Sports Morally Matter, co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Sport and editor of Ethics in Sport, third edition.
REVIEWS
“Morgan is a top scholar, and he presents a fully novel and provocative interpretation of sport ethics. His cross-disciplinary approach of using both history and philosophy to provide ethical guidance is unique. The employment of essentially deep historical tradition as a warrant for defensible moral positions is bold.”— R. Scott Kretchmar, Professor Emeritus of Exercise and Sport Science in the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State University
“A full study of the moral status of sport is necessary and long overdue. Morgan looks seriously at the relative merits of the basic positions, ultimately defending one of them—conventionalism. He displays a complete mastery of the literature, an attention to detail, and a balanced approach to the subject. This work is indispensable in our field: there is no one in the history of the philosophy of sport who has presented such a thorough and challenging critique of moral realism in sport. Sport and Moral Conflict showed me how much richer and more difficult the argument truly is.”—Paul Gaffney, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University and Editor of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Sport as a Kind of Moral Laboratory
1. The Fight for the Moral Soul of Modern Sport: Dueling Amateur and Professional Conceptions of Sport in the Early Modern Olympic Games, 1896–1924
2. Formalism and Sport
3. Broad Internalism, Moral Realism, and Sport: The Metaphysical Version
4. Broad Internalism, Moral Realism, and Sport: The Discourse Version
5. What a Conventionalist Ethical Theory of Sport Does Not Look Like: The Case against Coordinating, Deep, and Constitutive (Surface) Conventions
6. A Conventionalist Ethical Theory of Sport
Epilogue: Sport, Moral Progress, and Moral Entrepreneurs
Notes
References
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Sport and Moral Conflict: A Conventionalist Theory
by William J. Morgan
Temple University Press, 2020 Cloth: 978-1-4399-1539-4 eISBN: 978-1-4399-1541-7 Paper: 978-1-4399-1540-0
What is the purpose of sport, and how are ethical conceptions of sport shaped by the answers to this question? In Sport and Moral Conflict, William Morgan investigates, examining sport as a moral crucible that puts athletes in competitive, emotionally charged situations where fairness and equality are contested alongside accomplishment.
Morgan looks at the modern Olympics—from 1906 Athens to 1924 Paris, when the Games reached international prestige — in order to highlight the debate about athletic excellence and the amateur-professional divide. Whereas the Americans emphasized winning, the Europeans valued a love of the game. Morgan argues that the existing moral theories of sport—formalism and broad internalism (aka interpretivism), which rely on rules and general principles—fall short when confronted with such a dispute as the transition from amateur to professional sport. As such, he develops a theory of conventionalism, in which the norms at work in athletic communities determine how players should ethically acquit themselves. Presenting his case for an ethical theory of sport, Morgan provides insights regarding the moral controversies and crises that persist today.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY William J. Morgan is Professor Emeritus, Division of Occupational Science and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. He is author of multiple books, most recently of Why Sports Morally Matter, co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Sport and editor of Ethics in Sport, third edition.
REVIEWS
“Morgan is a top scholar, and he presents a fully novel and provocative interpretation of sport ethics. His cross-disciplinary approach of using both history and philosophy to provide ethical guidance is unique. The employment of essentially deep historical tradition as a warrant for defensible moral positions is bold.”— R. Scott Kretchmar, Professor Emeritus of Exercise and Sport Science in the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State University
“A full study of the moral status of sport is necessary and long overdue. Morgan looks seriously at the relative merits of the basic positions, ultimately defending one of them—conventionalism. He displays a complete mastery of the literature, an attention to detail, and a balanced approach to the subject. This work is indispensable in our field: there is no one in the history of the philosophy of sport who has presented such a thorough and challenging critique of moral realism in sport. Sport and Moral Conflict showed me how much richer and more difficult the argument truly is.”—Paul Gaffney, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University and Editor of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Sport as a Kind of Moral Laboratory
1. The Fight for the Moral Soul of Modern Sport: Dueling Amateur and Professional Conceptions of Sport in the Early Modern Olympic Games, 1896–1924
2. Formalism and Sport
3. Broad Internalism, Moral Realism, and Sport: The Metaphysical Version
4. Broad Internalism, Moral Realism, and Sport: The Discourse Version
5. What a Conventionalist Ethical Theory of Sport Does Not Look Like: The Case against Coordinating, Deep, and Constitutive (Surface) Conventions
6. A Conventionalist Ethical Theory of Sport
Epilogue: Sport, Moral Progress, and Moral Entrepreneurs
Notes
References
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE