After enjoying a rousing weekend of NFL football and NCAA basketball, the "philosophy" of sport still has become a bit clearer. Fan hang on every play as if their very lifes depending on that three pointer, or that next first down, or the blocked shot. Why does everyone care so much?
Most people have some experience with sports in their lifetime, be it in Pop Warner football, Pee Wee basketball, high school volleyball, or maybe some intramural softball. Watching the professional atheletes gives spectators a chance to relive those days; when nothing lifted you higher than the thrill of victory and nothing was lower than the agony of defeat. Living of emotional highs is part of life, and amost everyone enjoys it.
By that same notion, why do sports fans risk so much of their emotion on one event? Is the thrill of victory enough to balance out the bitterness and reproach that comes along with defeat? Evidently it must be so, since millions of fans across the globe tune in to watch their favorite sports. Phiolosophers need to take a long, hard look at this topic, and hopefully we can have some answers soon.
Peace,
Brett
1 comment:
A few things your post made me think about:
- yes, I think there is in many spectators not just an identification with what's going on, like at the movies, but for some, a "that could be me". In fact recently someone mentioned that it was only recently they realised or accepted that "that couldn't be me", ie that playing professionally was no longer possible even as a fantasy
- this also goes in the negative direction: some people's *bad* experience of sport in their youth is also revived at the spectacle of sport later on. Thus, the choice not to get involved or argue against the value of sport can be the expression of bad youthful experience
On why people invest so much emotion, even at the risk of it not paying off: maybe this is a reflection of the kind of commitment required on the field, which is also a gamble, but no (good) athlete ever held back because of the risk of no payoff! A philosopher (Kant) once said that all pleasure involves a tension between pleasure and pain, and mentioned the pleasure of gambling as a tension between hope and fear. Maybe if you know everything is going to turn out well, it's just not as exciting...?
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