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Philosophy and Sport

Sports and Deviant Behavior

Guest editor Tim Delaney introduces our Sports issue and explains why studying the misdemeanors of athletes can throw light on the problems the rest of us face.

What is sport? Listing sports is easy. Classifying them as indoor or outdoor, professional or amateur, and so on, is only slightly more difficult. However, a definition that clearly includes all the varied activities we call sports and excludes everything else is more difficult to formulate. For example, is badminton a true sport? It is in the Olympics now. What about anvil shooting, or elephant racing, or chess? Are they sports? Most definitions of sport include the notion that it involves physical skill and exertion.

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