Walcott D. Bartlett Professor of Philosophy Robert Simon presented a lecture, “Theories of Sport: Their Nature, Significance, and Application” on Oct. 17 at Penn State University.
He argued that understanding the values embedded in a theoretical account of sport is crucial to the ethical evaluation of current controversies in sport, including “the importance that should be assigned to winning, the morality of using performance enhancing drugs and responsibilities to our opponents in a contest.”
Simon also argued against social constructivists saying that “a defensible universal conception of sports could emerge from dialogue between opposing viewpoints and different cultures, and that therefore relativism about values in sports based on social constructivism has not been shown to be justified.”
In addition to the lecture, Simon also discussed his previous work in the philosophy of sport, including his book Fair Play, with groups of graduate students and faculty.
