Philosophical Analysis of Sport

What is sport? Sport refers to any physical activity involving humans as participants. Sports can be competitive or non-competitive. These fit the basic human need for competition, physical exercise and play. This is the main difference between leisure, recreation or social activity and sports.

Sport can be analysed as a system of values and attitudes about what is considered to be acceptable. This includes sport in its social, philosophical and sporting forms. Philosophy refers to the study of how people decide to participate in sports, why they choose their sport of choice and how they define the concept of sport. Sport can also be analysed as a set of values and attitudes about what is considered to be an acceptable level of physical exertion. This includes sport in its philosophical, ethical and sporting forms.

The two concepts of sport are intertwined as both involve physical activities that are undertaken to gain an objective result. However, while the overall goal of most sports is to win, some competitions still maintain a high level of importance as an outcome of a competition or rivalry; the important issue here is that there is considerable scope for discussion and debate as to whether a particular competition has achieved its objective. Sport certainly has both philosophical and aesthetic elements that are important to its followers.