Ethics of Competitive Sport

Abstract

Competitive sport raises many significant ethical issues. Perhaps the most important of these - and to which the most attention has been paid - concerns how individuals should conduct themselves when engaging in competitive sport. Topics considered here include cheating and the use of performance-enhancing drugs. There are also important ethical questions that arise out of the central role sport plays in our cultural and political lives, such as what role it plays in damaging or enhancing society and whether sport itself should be subject to political evaluation. The serious examination of these questions is relatively recent, beginning with Weiss's text 'Sport: A Philosophic Inquiry' (1969). At the present time there are only two English-language philosophical journals devoted to sport: 'Journal of the Philosophy of Sport' and 'Sport, Ethics and Philosophy'.