The Best Way to Locate a Purpose in Sport: Considerations in Aesthetics?

Authors

  • Leon Culbertson Edge Hill University
  • Graham McFee

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v1i2.11989

Keywords:

David Best, aesthetic appreciation, philosophy of sport

Abstract

The paper highlights the centrality of some concepts from philosophy of sport for philosophical aesthetics. Once Best (BJA, 1974) conclusively answered negatively the fundamental question, ‘Can any sport-form be an artform?’, what further issues remained at the intersection of these parts of philosophy? Recent work revitalizing this interface, especially Mumford’s Watching Sport (2012), contested Best’s fundamental distinction between purposive and aesthetic sports, and insisted that purist viewers are taking an aesthetic interest in sporting events. Here, we defend Best’s conception against considerations Mumford hoped would bring the aesthetics of art and sport closer together, thereby elaborating the aesthetics of sport. But, against Mumford’s resolutely psychological conception of an aim, we follow Best to defend the centrality, for purposive sports, of the means/ends contrast even when taking an aesthetic interest in such sports. We conclude with general speculations about the potential future of the discussions originated here.

Author Biographies

  • Leon Culbertson, Edge Hill University
    Assistant Director of Post Graduate Research, Reader in Philosophy, Edge Hill University, UK
  • Graham McFee

    Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Brighton, UK and Professor, Department of Philosophy, California State University Fullerton, USA.

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Published

2016-12-20

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Culbertson, Leon, and Graham McFee. 2016. “The Best Way to Locate a Purpose in Sport: Considerations in Aesthetics?”. Aesthetic Investigations 1 (2): 191-213. https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v1i2.11989.