Comments from Paper #5

Things I learned from you…

Three different positions about sport and the moral life...

• Positive view– clear connection between the playing of team sports

and the development of social and moral values. such training could be transferable into the world at large and could be called upon if necessary in battle or in the service of the empire. Wellington, “This battle was won on the playing fields of Eton.” MacArthur, “On the fields of friendly strive are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.

• Neutral view– Play, sport, is discontinuous from the “business

of life” and is unimportant. Essentially, non-serious. When stripped of manufactured importance, is only a game and is not to be compared with such matters as poverty, pestilence, war and famine.

• Negative view - dominance, assertiveness and non-sociability are necessary to play the game. Such qualities associated with sportsmanship, such as generosity and magnanimity, are more likely to be disregarded by participants. Educationalists argue that competitive sport is antithetical to moral education; that it detracts from rather than enhances moral development. Alfie Kohn. No Contest.

Neutral view...

• These are only games…

• People should know what to do…

• People in charge should be in charge…Tuelo

• Teachers and coaches should be role models...

We have discussed the positive through out the course

• What about the Neutral and the Negative...

Neutral view and moral training..• Issues are relative in comparison to the real

world, but solution can be found, if necessary, in moral training.

• Educate the parents, educators, population. .

• The feel of Conrad’s and Amber’s papers and their comments…”these are givens” and people should know what to do and people should do it. Stand up and be counted.

If...

• Coaches model appropriate behavior, the players will also.

• Set a standard and expect the same from others.

Moral Training...

• implying a form of drilling to get pupils to conform to moral rules.

• “Each student involved in these activities is given an honor code to sign stating that (s)he agrees to abide by the rules of sportsmanship and fair play and to treat each other and the other team’s players with respect. Fans are expected to act in like manner. Deary High School

Moral Education

• Positive view… sport can give rise to participants reflecting upon moral issues in light of fundamental moral principles and make their own rational judgments, which they then translate into appropriate moral action.

• moral education - the intentional bringing about of moral growth.

Components of Character Moral Knowing

– Moral Awareness

– Knowing moral values

– Perspective-taking

– Moral Reasoning

– Decision Making

– Self Knowledge

Moral Feeling– Conscience

– Self-esteem

– Empathy

– Loving the good

– Self-Control

– Humility

Moral Action

Competence Will

HabitLickona

Educating for Character

Knowledge

Skills Desire

Habits

Stephen Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Positivist view

• Kant --relationship between education and formation of character.

• Rawls - sport concerned with justice as fairness.

Negative view

• Trash talking is commonly accepted. “Attempt to optimally arouse and motivate self and at the same time over arouse their opponents.”

• The view that the psychological tests are a part of the drama.

Positivist Response..

• Totally illogical. Arouse to over stimulate so that opponent cannot play. What is the purpose of the game, the motor play or the psychological play. Becomes a game of psyching out, not challenging the opponent to physical and mental skills.

Neutral/Negative...

• Sportsmanship does not apply. Sportsmanship applies NOT to fans.

• Sportsmanship applies only to the players, the fans’ behavior has to do with moral behavior.

Moral Justification

• Albert Bandura– I didn’t know any better.– I was a pawn.– I’m not at fault.– Doing good for others.– Doing good for the program.

Kenneth Davis

• Signed a letter of intent – gave a promise and broke it.

• Broke an agreement – Wooden’s story.

• Following NCAA rules and clearance.

• Accepted gifts and cried amoral.

• So do we listen to a cheat, when he says he didn’t know better.

Paternalism...• Paternalism violates our status as autonomous moral

agents.• The human faculties of perception, judgment,

discrimination, feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference are exercised only in making a choice...

• The mental and the moral, like the muscular, are improved only be being used....He who lets the world....choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. John Stuart Mill

Against Paternalism..

• The ideal of human development

• The right to control our own life must be primary.

• Paternalism, by treating us as if we were children, who must be cared for by others, reduces us in moral stature by denying us dignity and respect.

Autonomy...

• The individual's life is his or her business, as long as, that person's acts do not harm or threaten others, no interference is justified.

Paternalism...acceptable..

• Paternalism is acceptable when its goal is not simply to benefit the persons being interfered with but to safeguard their status as rational autonomous agents.

The Dubin Inquiry

• Ben Johnson

• Magistrate Dubin – and the Commission of Inquiry Into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices / Fair Play Commission of Canada

• http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-41-106-1115/sports/ben_johnson/