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Class听tackles four hot-button听topics: doping, collegiate athletics, sex and gender, and sports and politics

Ask fans in the stands or a star athlete on the sidelines about the connection between philosophy and sports, and it鈥檚 a fair bet that many would find the question puzzling.

Philosophy, after all, is seen by many as a kind of ultimate pursuit of the mind, while sports is deemed an expression of the body. As the late Yale philosophy professor Paul Weiss pointed out in his groundbreaking 1969 book,听Sport: A Philosophical Inquiry, every human society watch and participate in sports, yet the world鈥檚 greatest philosophers barely brushed against the subject, considering it vulgar.

Alex Wolf-Root, a former collegiate track athlete pursuing a PhD in philosophy at the 精品SM在线影片, first got the idea to create a course melding philosophy and sports following a conversation with a co-worker about 鈥淒eflategate.鈥� For non-sports fans, that was the media鈥檚 tag for a scandal in which the New England Patriots were found guilty of deliberating deflating footballs during the 2014-15 American Football Conference championship, allegedly to make it easier for star quarterback Tom Brady to throw the ball.

鈥淎ssuming the allegations were true, it raises some interesting philosophical questions,鈥� says Wolf-Root, who is not a football fan.

That seed has now bloomed into a course, Philosophy and Sports (PHIL 2240), offered for the first time at 精品SM在线影片 for the fall 2018 semester. Most of Wolf-Root鈥檚 32 students have never before taken a philosophy course, which is exactly what he was hoping for.

鈥淚 wanted to pull people into philosophy classes who would never otherwise do that, to practice the skills of philosophy and discuss interesting issues they otherwise wouldn鈥檛 discuss,鈥� he says.

He deliberately dropped his students into the deep end during the first weeks of the course, examining such conceptual issues as the nature of sports, sportspersonship and cheating.

鈥淭he first unit is really about the metaphysics of sport,鈥� he says, 鈥渢hough I never used the word 鈥榤etaphysics.鈥欌��

From there, the class is designed to tackle four hot-button applied topics: doping, collegiate athletics, sex and gender, and sports and politics.听

Wolf-Root has had strong feelings about doping in sport, though many of his views changed once he began to critically examine the issues. Regardless of his own views, he has sought to foster discussions that will help his students see shades of gray. For example, using caffeine isn鈥檛 considered doping, even though the drug has been shown to give endurance athletes a leg up. Likewise, many athletes use iron supplements to boost red-blood-cell counts and improve oxygen uptake.

鈥淭alking about 鈥榰nnatural鈥� enhancement is incredibly problematic,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat does it mean for something to be 鈥榥atural鈥�? Wearing clothes isn鈥檛 鈥榥atural.鈥欌��

Ultimately, it鈥檚 all about context, he argues, and what鈥檚 agreed upon within the sporting community.

The course examines two main questions pertaining to collegiate athletics: The connection, if any, between athletics and academics, and the exploitation of athletes in money-generating sports such as football and basketball.听

Wolf-Root is so troubled by some of those issues that he won鈥檛 watch big-time college athletics鈥攎en's basketball and football in the "Power Five" conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC). He sees big-time college athletes as 鈥渆xploited free labor鈥� and is dubious about the traditional arguments supporting athletic programs at colleges and universities.

鈥淪upporters say (athletics) teaches values of teamwork, leadership and hard work,鈥� he notes. 鈥淏ut not only is it not clear that big-time college athletics teaches that, there also are tons of other ways to learn those skills.鈥�

Wolf-Root sees the value of connecting athletics with the modern university, but believes the current system is unjustifiable. That's not to say that he doesn't see a value of connecting athletics with the modern university, but rather that he sees the current system as unjustifiable.

Issues relating to gender in sports can be contentious. Sex and gender, he notes, are not the same thing, and neither is strictly binary; not even anatomical or chromosomal differences are always clear cut.

Binary approaches to athletics can lead to humiliating or invasive situations, as when South African runner Caster Semenya was forced to withdraw from competition until she underwent a 鈥渟ex verification test.鈥� She was later allowed to return to competition, though allegedly only after she underwent mandatory hormone therapy.

And determining what is an 鈥渦nfair鈥� advantage can get tricky, Wolf-Root says.听

鈥淧eople under six feet tall are more likely to be discriminated against in professional basketball, and most professional sprinters have an innate physical advantage because they have a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers,鈥� he notes. 鈥淭hat might be unfair, but is it necessarily problematic?鈥�

He literally laughs at the idea that there has ever been a time when sports have been free from politics, noting that African-American baseball players were forced to play in separate leagues for decades and that the U.S. Department of Defense has spent millions of dollars to turn professional football games into a platform for its messaging.听

When former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the National Anthem to bring attention to racial injustice, many Americans accused him of disrespecting the military. Meanwhile, former college and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who is white, was widely hailed for kneeling in prayer after scoring touchdowns.

鈥淜neeling is one of the more accepted ways of non-violent protest. It shows respect,鈥� Wolf-Root says. 鈥淏ut people hate Kaepernick because he鈥檚 using his platform to put a spotlight on how racist our society is.鈥�

Whatever his own opinions, Wolf-Root hopes that such discussions will help his students 鈥渃ultivate critical-reasoning skills.鈥澨�

鈥淓ducation is not just about getting a job. It鈥檚 about helping students learn the skills to flourish and engage in the world around them, be it in work, life or politics. Even more broadly, it's about helping students figure out what matters to them, and what makes their lives have meaning and value," he says.

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