PHIL 2020H Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Physical Therapy
26 Jun 2018
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It is already not unusual for people to undergo surgical operations to repair damaged tendons and
ligaments or to undergo laser eye surgery to improve their vision. Further developments in
prosthetic technology have connected biological tissue and nerve endings to prosthetic limbs to
make them more controllable and to be used more naturally...
Thick Theory of Sport
Ryall notes that technology may actually change our understanding of sport itself and of what
to value in sport. She cites scholar Sigmund Loland's notion of the thick theory of sport
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Our concern with the quantified sports record (such as the fastest time for 100m sprint or the
highest vertical jump) will diminish. The value of sport could instead be found in the creative
freedom and possibilities that new technologies allow. This has arguably already been seen in
the popularity of events such as snowboarding. Wind suit flying another other extreme sports
in which new technologies have widened the possibilities of human technologies
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This brings us back to definition of sport questions, though. If technology does open up for us
"creative freedom and possibilities" can we use it to create new forms of play that become
sometimes new sports
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If we have a broad understanding of technology similar to the one Ryall posed at the beginning
of this chapter, I think the clear answer is yes
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Technology and Play
Is the body just another tool (chapter 8)
Perhaps more specifically, is it all that comprises us? Or is there something like a "soul"
or "spirit" or "spark" that animates us
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There are at least two parts to a human-- body and soul
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This is an important question for philosophy of sport, because if philosophers like Plato
are right and the relation should be a properly ordered hierarchy (with body and bodily
matters at the bottom) than excelling at bodily matters, as one aims to do in sports, is
less worthy an enterprise than developing one's mind or soul
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First issue: her assertions about body and soul in ancient Greece and Plato
specifically:
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You may notice that I am presenting a different view of Plato here than Ryall does
in her paragraph on Plato. Ryall's views on Plato and the body are, charitably put,
too simplistic. I find her claims that physical education in acient Greece was "more
holistic:
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Second issue: Decartes was not the issue of the denegration of the body (born in
1596) and Ryall claims that he was the reason its been an issue for the past 1000
years
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Third: Ryall does not support her claim of god created the body to munish man for
their sin with a good source (she uses a physical education from 1971)
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Christian faith teaches that God made everything good
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Ryall attempts to set up three ways of looking at the body in this chapter--
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What is the body?
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Where biomechanists, physiologists, physiotherapist, nutritionists, psychologists are all
looking to shape and improve the functioning of the machine in the elite athletes
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Culture is driven by science and technology as Saltman notes
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Leads to a technological attitude whereby the human is viewed and treated as a
machine to be honed and perfected through scientific intervention
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What happens when its viewed this way?
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Reductive materialism- the body is a machine, beautifully well put together (most of the time).
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Theory in Sport
February 8, 2018
12:01 PM
Philosophy of Sport and Recreation Page 1
Document Summary
It is already not unusual for people to undergo surgical operations to repair damaged tendons and ligaments or to undergo laser eye surgery to improve their vision. Further developments in prosthetic technology have connected biological tissue and nerve endings to prosthetic limbs to make them more controllable and to be used more naturally Ryall notes that technology may actually change our understanding of sport itself and of what to value in sport. She cites scholar sigmund loland"s notion of the thick theory of sport. Our concern with the quantified sports record (such as the fastest time for 100m sprint or the highest vertical jump) will diminish. The value of sport could instead be found in the creative freedom and possibilities that new technologies allow. This has arguably already been seen in the popularity of events such as snowboarding. Wind suit flying another other extreme sports in which new technologies have widened the possibilities of human technologies.
