BPSA2005 Conference Notes Sigmund Loland

From morals to medicine – a justification

DISPOSITION Why sport? T values of sport to t indiv and soc A selective, critical review of answers from the past and t current A sketch of a possible justification Some implications

MORALITY Arnold and muscular Christianity Coubertin’s ilympism Nansen: avoid sport and practice idrett – body culture of sports (or rather: skiing, the idrett of idretts) Camus: everything I know about ethics I’ve learned from sports

MORALITY II Doxa: sport is good! Children and youth sport -    a safe enviro -    sport as a tool in socialization elite sports -    the system -    the athlete

BUT Children’s sport and moral development (Bredemaier & Shields; Olweus) Elite sports and the society of the spectacle (Gebauer) The fascistoid roots of our admiration for sport heros (Tannsjo)

No obvious connection between sport and morality

How?

Prevalent ideas related to sport:

HEALTH I 1700s, French Encyclopedie (de Wachter) 1800s: t development of applied physiology and medicine (Hoberman) the workers’ sport movement of the mid war period (AIF) -    picked up idea of sport as health

HEALTH II WHO: overweight a global epidemic 1985-2004: av weight increase in adults +5-6kg 1993-2000: overweight 14yrs old from 7.5%-11.5% (Andersen et al, 2004) SDS: sedentary death syndrome

The hegemonic discourse

But… Crude instrumntalism and sociological naivete Individualization in a visual culture Medicalizartion (Zola, Waddington) Strong paternalism (hidden paternalism) ‘revenge of the body’

how?

Sport as a tool

Experiential qualities I Direct and sensual v win and lose Mastery and failure v cooperation and conflict Pleasure and pain v us and them

Experiential qualities II -    a concrete, embodied and sensual quest for answers to existential questions -    what can I/we do? What are my/our possibilities in time and space? What can i/we do as compared to others? Who am i/we?

Sport: testing out of our possibilities as embodied, sensual I’s

Normative anchoring -    Aristotelian eudaimonism: a holistic theory of ends -    Life as a web of values -    Neo-aristotelian virtue ethics (MacIntyre, McNamee) -    Standards of excellence – internal goods – virtues – moral virtue – the/a good life

CONCLUSION Morality and health as integrated values of variable significance Critique: high strung idealism versus practical knowledge Politics of justification and the unity and diversity of life

Could you imagine a version of boxing that did not fall prey to your sorts of concern – is it the ethos you reject or the activity -    critique is buying into the society of the spectacle thesis, rather than the activity

he is talking about the minds of people who watch

Mike McNamee

Polemical philosophy

‘human nature itself lies on the operating table, rdy for alteration, for eugenic and neuropsychic ‘enhancement’, for wholesale design. In leading laboratories, academic and industrial, new creators are condiently amassing their powers, while on the street their evangelists are zealously prophesying a posthuman future’ (Kass, L, 2002)

motivational set of technology intro -    baconian/Cartesian conceptions of science and its powers -    to question their instantation in a new modern ideology ‘transhumanism’sport medicines, genetics and t ‘enhancement’ ideology -    which Prometheus? Hesoid versus Aeschylus -    from athletic to medical hubris (mortality & Mortality)

technology to control nature -    ME: THIS IS NOT THE WAY THEORISTS OF Philosophy AND TECHNOLOGY ARTICULATE TECHNOLOGY

Nuances of myths of Prometheus – lens for hubris of genetic medicine -

science after bacon -    obsession w physical perfectioniams arises as a moral imperative, as sociologists of body have noted, w increasing pervasiveness of modern technology. Roots oder -    Bacon and Descarte emerges t impulse not merely to describe mechanically t operation of nature, but to control it

Moral topography -    Charles Taylor on moral sources of modern identity -    In sport med, might be about drawing relief, natural and artif of work of scientists therein -    As a metaphor for what I take to be t natural work of medicine in the relief of suffering and t artificiality of perf enhancement or t augmentation of natural abilities as opposed to t tradl therapeutic role of medicine

Physicians often sucked into ‘enhancement’

Nature and purposes of medicine hotly contested Roots in healing tradition Assist in presence of someone who suffers Telos of medicine This is lost to sports medicine

Kass’ classification of biomedical technology -    control of death and life -    control of human potentialities -    control of human achievements -    Kass, L.. (1985, 19-24) -    IVF – redefines life and death (not for this paper – ME: YES IT IS!)

Control of human potentialities

Genetic engineering wields 2 powers not shared by medical practice 1.    medicine treats exiting indivs and corrects deviations from health norms 2.    genetic engineering promises alterations to future generations (germ line therapy) and may create new capacities (hence new norms of health/fitness)

ME: HE PRESENTS A CRITIQUE ON GERMLINE ONLY

Changing germline is new.  – ME: NOT REALLY

Not merely to restore, but to augment -    ME: MEDICINE ALWAYS AUGMENTS

Contrl of human capacities -    the limits of many capacities and powers of an idiv are indeed genetically determined, but t nurturing and perfection of these capacities depends upon other influences’ (Kass, 23) (eg. Neurological and psychological manipulation -    ‘from its inception, modern science has been especially interested in finding reliable biological means-means more effective than exhortation or praise or blame-to attain t ends of sensible, decent, human conduct and peace of mind’ (ibid)

new ethics for new  biology. But not sure -    ME: WHEN PEOPPLE ARGUE THIS, THEY DO NOT MEAN THAT WE NEED NEW WAYS OF DOING ETHICS, OR NEW THEORISTS, BUT THAT THE RELATIONSHIPS UPON WHICH ETHICS ARE PREMISED, PARTIC IN MEDICINE, HAVE CHANGED. ALBERT JONSEN’S CASUISTRY, TOD CHAMBERS ‘NARRATIVE’ - New biology: old ethics -    Edelstein (1967: 357-9) notes t ancient greek philosophers task of undermining t glorification of t body -    McKenny cites pplat’s questions in t Republic when..

Plato’s questions -    how much attention should we dvote t our bodies in t effort to optimize our capacities? -    How much control should? -    What endsw? -    What limits …remove causes of suffering?

Scientist – reductionism -    ME: CANNOT ARGUE THIS.

New biology: new ethics? -    ideology – transhumanism -    strong transhumanism – -    weak transhumanism – human nature is a half-baked project o    no respect for sanctity of life

Sports medicine and scientism -    formerly when religion was storng and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak,

anti-ageing main concern -    we should shed human nature -    taylor ‘we are vulnerable’ -    we should do everything we can to stop it

ME: critique of sci fi!?

Concern about ‘ideal blueprint’

Habermas, jonas, kass, macintryre,

ME: chris gray – cyborg -    sex alteration surgery -    disability

TRANSHUMANISTS UNDER NO ILLUSION

‘Natural is meaningless’ (miah) -    not meaningless, but you might disagree with it

Prometheus (2 versions) – THIS MYTH IS NOT HELPFUL. WHY PICK THIS MYTH? -    overpower god -    cunning of human to be as good as god

ME A WIDE RANGING THESIS – TOO AMBITIOUS DISAGREE WITH THEORY OF SCIENCE/MEDICINE/TECHNOLOGY – PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY CERTAINLY REFLECTS HOBERMAN’S EXPRESSION OF PAST DISAGRE WITH REPRESENTATION OF TRANSHUMANISM DISAGREE W DIPICTION OF GENETICS

IVF – SAME KINDS OF ARGUMENT – NOW WE HAVE, JUST THIS WEEK, LAW LORDS PERMITTED ‘SAVIOUR SIBLINGS’

VIRTUOUS ROBOT?

FRIDAY AM

Anna

Corporeality

Heidegger

Man is man as far as is hand can reach, as far as the purpose of his world extend

Become corporeal by means of hand and speech

Why the hand and not the leg?

Corporeality process

Man assumes emotional figures – existence

Postmodern

We don’t understand ourselves

Universal values have vanished

Gypsies of Europe

Predicated by Nietzsche

Great strength is greatest priority

Speech is essential part of our corporeality Doesn’t pertain only to doctors or semiology, or grammarians, literates, etc

Speech is only an extn of the hand

When hand no longer writes through hand, but through speech, what will happen -    breaking of art, where hand forms meaningful words

what will happen with speech and words -    changed only into symbols

speech taken over by semiology

profound meanings of words will dwindle

transformed into a machine, tool?

Production merely

Physical education responsibility for speech

Hand and words are only means to transcendence

What will happen with the hand?

Managed by computers

Transcendence by sport is victory over self

What about a typing competition -    give someone a title and ask them to write it

LEON CULBERTSON

Hoberman – dehumanisation- ME:  but  he meant alienation (and he is right)

ME: do we need a precise notion of human? (I think he is also arguing for this)

Warnock – embryo rights – she - we don’t need to get into humanness (ME: but that agrees w Warnock!)

humans – as homo sapiens (strong) -    dignity persons (weak)

we are all human – product of our actions

ME: prob is that we do operationalise human!

Dehuman, not less than human Use to work human in weak sense, but not humanness

Edgar – dignity – undignified – don’t talk about dignity when feel undignified

Human definition arises out of sense of being dehumanised

Persons need not be human (McNamee? ME: no!)

What gives sport value?which sport, for whom, etc?

Contextual

Clear view of t misunderstanding Terms such as dehuman used in specific kinds of context

Contrasts – different beings -    prob is that they are oft drawn in way -    drawing t line – ME: we don’t like it, but this is how people conceptualise issues!

Degrading – lack of feeling is inhuman, but not non-human

GEOFF PARSONS

Selection as a vehicle – throughout sport and elsewhere

Conflict of differing philosophy in sport

Different between objectively measured sports and subjectively measured (team sports)

Gov policy driven by sports councils – uk sport

New athlete contract just published -    given to 16yr old, 17p document -    says: we all agree that the overriding thing is to win medals at Olympic championships

institutions of sport act as guardians

performance directors in governing bodies – their job is to win medals – they now have subjective method by which to select people – Olympic profiling – to receive funding and stay in programme, reqs to meet perf directors assessment of what is Olympic profiling -    is asked ‘if athlete wins championship for 3 years, would they get on programme’ – performance  dir says no. -    creates biased selection policies

In objective sport, should be no selectors – performance  on day matters only

Blame governing bodies – complicit, rejected commerce, thirst for resources,

Government role -    top down agenda in very item -    UK Sport cd: seeking perfection

Performance director should be tied to the performance of the athletes for which they make selection

When threatened, sports institutions act like nation states

British sport should celebrate process, rather than medals

WHAT ARE GOVERNING BODIES FOR YOU? WOULD YOU REPLACE THEM WITH SOMETHING ELSE? DIFFERENT PEOPLE?

BIOETHICS AND DOPING

Definition of sport – psychophysio sphare

Doping in sport relationship – if doping is alteration in different relational spheres -    intra personal – relationship betweenathlete and body o    doping – loss of develo of personality o    limit – surpass oneself -    inter personl – negation of propium over sport -    doping compression of games diemsion o    not charac by gratuitousness o    perversion

doping = rejectiung principle outlayed breq to entre into comp

Dr Giovanni Franchi Universita di Teramo giovfranchi@libero.it

ALUN HARDMAN

Different kinds of injury -    injury prior to contest -    iinjury sustained to non-contXX -    injurie sustained as reslt of actions from non-contestant -    injuries sustained as result of foul play

referee must top t game – ME: t player should adopt some referee status -    t rule is badly formulated -    self-offciating/governing -    is it fair only if we interpret t incorrect reading of the rule?

Fraleigh Right Actions -are players following guiding of principleof equal of opp intentionality is imp non-moral principle

health/well being not only concern -    do not stop player if ‘normal injury

ME: if injured player is on attacking team?

Principle of voluntary and dual assessment

Permit medical team to attend to athlete without ceasing play

Is guilt approp response to injury? McNamee, EJSS 2002 -    shame and moral failing, guilt and shame – guilt proper respons to transgress of code, shame is not reaching an ideal -    -if harm unintntionly, rawls says subjective guilt – guilt sign of virtue – causally responsible but not morally

GRAHAM MCFEE

Popper – overstaed claimn of sci method rejected

Account of science -    Popper? -    Creation science -    If meet Popper

Kuhn – different between natural nad social science -    truth denied, t pomo -    natural sci – 2 phases: normal sci – unpacking of past insight, paradigm in place – crisis and revolution when absence of single paradigm – makes no sense -    physics etc failure to invoke conXX over fundamentals -    sociology always contested  - Kuhnan explans why

limitations – socio,psych have competing view of social world Kuhn – how align?

But should be – social world – perspective dependent

question about why in social science you have paradigm claim as barrier to conversations between subject areas?