Week 4 Flashcards
What is Rawls’ veil of ignorance, and how does Loland attempt to use it to come up with a fair principle of athletic competition?
When Rawl decides what society looks like, you won’t know the contingient properties you’ll face in real life (factors that will play into your life ex. race, family status, etc.)
Loland tries to make sense of fairness in sport by picking a principle behind Rawls veil of ignorance - one that is automatically fair.
What is Loland’s ‘Fair opportunity principle (FOP)?
eliminate or compensate for essential inequalities between personst that cannot be contorlled or influenced by individuals in any significant way and for which individuals cannot be deemed responsible
What are inequalities of external conditions, and, according to Loland, does FOP say that we should try to reduce/eliminate them?
external conditions: ex. home court advantage, court sides switching halfway through game
FOP says that we should interfere to correct these as they influence performance and are outside of athletes’ control
According to Loland, what are the problems of overclassification/underclassification? Give examples
Problems: control inequalities in person-dependent factors that will have an impact on performance that individuals cannot controll or influence in a significant way. ex. sex, age, body mass
Overclassification ex.: gender seperation in archery, shooting or sports where skill matters more than strength
Underclassification ex.: no height class in basketball (bullshit)
According to Loland, what are inequalities in scientific knowledge and technology? Which of those inequalities does FOP say we should reduce/eliminate, and which does FOP say are allowable?
Scientific Knowledge: minimize this - it should be made public for everyone to enjoy the benefits of, knowlege shouldn’t be secret
body techniques: should be allowed - they can be controlled by the individual athlete (ex. v jump in skiing)
equipment: coontrolled or standardized, at least equal access - they’re an extension of the athlete
training and training tech: equal access to expert administered tech, but there will still be a rare case where if it is equal access there’s still inequalities - ex. nutritionists, high altittude chambers
Loland claims that when it comes to ‘expert-administered tech, even if we allow for equal access, and as such, inequality is eliminated, the situation still might violate FOP. Why is that?
because sometimes expert administered tech goes too far that performance is not properly a functionof the athlete’s effort
What sorts of cases, for Loland, involve athletes being used as ‘means to an end?’ and should it be allowed to continue?
Case: athlete’s are a means to ‘system survival’ - the system is taking advantage of the athlete (ex. athlete feels the need to dope in order to succeed) - BAD, BANNED
According to Tamburrini, what is the standard definition of ‘cheating?’ What is Tamburrini’s definition of ‘cheating’?
Standard = the intentional violation of the rules of the game in order to gain an unfair advantage over competitors
Tamburrini = violation of the written rules of the game, performed in order to gain an illicit advantage for oneself/team/over rival players. good fouls are cheating
For Tamburrini, what’s the difference between being a good sport, being a neutral sport, and being a bad sport?
Good Sport = fair play AND doing more than the rules demand; being generous and magnanimous, doing something that deserves special praise
Neutral Sport = follow the rules, but don’t do anything special or particularly bad
Bad Sport = following rules, but Tamburrini never defines this term, just gives examples (ex. coughing during a tense moment in game)
Give some of Tamburrini’s examples of bad sportsmanship
- cough in tense moment of game
- player stops to tie shoes in order to mess up opponents rhythm
- intimidating actions (talking smack)
According to Tamburrini, what three things are individually sufficient to make foul play (which includes cheating and bad sportsmanship) worthy of condemnation?
- the foul play is unfair
- the foul play spoils the game
- the foul play increases the risk of injury
According to Tamburrini, what condition(s) have to be in place for a behavior or practice in sports to be unfair?
unfair when action breaks deeper tacit rules of the game (the unwritten rules silent contract)
- if eveyone tends to play a certain way then thats how you play (even if it conflicts written rules)
According to Tamburrini, what is spoiling and why is it bad?
an action/practice that violates no rules but detracts from the quality of the game (bad because you’re ruining a high quality game)
Does Tamburrini think that the examples of unsportsmanlike conduct that he considers are in fact worthy of condemnation? Explain.
The only example of foul play that he considered worthy of condemnation is the way that Arsenal acted when they intercepted that ball after an injury had occurred. But other than that, he has discovered that he cannot find a reason as to why the other examples he presented are worthy of condemnation. And that’s why he concludes that foul play is often not blameable.
