Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals PDF Download

Author: Daniel A. Dombrowski
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226155498
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Despite their influence in our culture, sports inspire dramatically less philosophical consideration than such ostensibly weightier topics as religion, politics, or science. Arguing that athletic playfulness coexists with serious underpinnings, and that both demand more substantive attention, Daniel Dombrowski harnesses the insights of ancient Greek thinkers to illuminate contemporary athletics. Dombrowski contends that the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus shed important light on issues—such as the pursuit of excellence, the concept of play, and the power of accepting physical limitations while also improving one’s body—that remain just as relevant in our sports-obsessed age as they were in ancient Greece. Bringing these concepts to bear on contemporary concerns, Dombrowski considers such questions as whether athletic competition can be a moral substitute for war, whether it necessarily constitutes war by other means, and whether it encourages fascist tendencies or ethical virtue. The first volume to philosophically explore twenty-first-century sport in the context of its ancient predecessor, Contemporary Athletics and Ancient Greek Ideals reveals that their relationship has great and previously untapped potential to inform our understanding of human nature.

Author: Daniel A. Dombrowski
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459605926
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Despite their influence in our culture, sports inspire dramatically less philosophical consideration than such ostensibly weightier topics as religion, politics, or science. Arguing that athletic playfulness coexists with serious underpinnings, and that both demand more substantive attention, Daniel Dombrowski harnesses the insights of ancient G...

Author: Heather L. Reid
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317984951
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome focused on the connection between athleticism and virtue. It begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. This idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Ethics and Sport.

Author: Heather Reid
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739169149
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Aretism: An Ancient Sports Philosophy for the Modern Sports World applies a robust ancient ethic to the widely-acknowledged problems faced by modern sports. Aretism—from the Greek word arete ("excellence")—draws a balance between the hard commercialism of modern sports culture and the soft playfulness of recreational models to recover the value of sport for individuals, education, and society at large. The authors' approach proposes practical strategies for athletes, coaches, and physical educators to use when facing ethical challenges in the modern world. Holowchak and Reid present Aretism as a tripartite model of athletic excellence focused on personal, civic, and global integration. They reject the personal and social separation characteristics of much of contemporary moral reasoning. Aretism creates a critical and normative framework within which athletic agents can aim for spirited, but morally sensitive, competition by seeking the betterment not only of themselves, through athletic competition, but also of their teammates, fellow competitors, and even their communities. Holowchak and Reid also present a historical overview of sport and a critique of two traditional models—the martial/commercial model and the aesthetic/recreational model. This book is most applicable to students and academics concerned with the philosophy of sport, but will be of interest to all those in sports professions, including coaches, trainers, and athletes.

Author: Mark Golden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521497909
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Sport and Society in Ancient Greece provides a concise and readable introduction to ancient Greek sport. It covers such topics as the links between sport, religion and warfare, the origins and history of the Olympic games, and the spirit of competition among the Greeks. Its main focus, however, is on Greek sport as an arena for the creation and expression of difference among individuals and groups. Sport not only identified winners and losers. It also drew boundaries between groups (Greeks and barbarians, boys and men, males and females) and offered a field for debate on the relative worth of athletic and equestrian competition. The book includes guides to the ancient evidence and to modern scholarship on the subject.

Author: Edward Norman Gardiner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description

Author: Heather Reid
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781942495215
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Pindar called Olympia ¿Queen of truth,¿ so it was appropriate that nearly 100 philosophers of sport from 18 countries on four continents presented 80 different papers there in September of 2016. This proceedings gathers fourteen of them, including two of the keynotes. Topics range from sport in education to transgender athletes to Taijiquan. Authors include Drew A. Hyland, Francisco Javier López Frías, José Luis Pérez Triviño, Terry J. McMurtry, Junko Yamaguchi, Emanuel Hurych, Boryana Angelova-Igova, Daniel T. Durbin, Kim Hee-sub, Kwon Oh-ryun, Matt Waddell, Angela Schneider, Matteo Cacchiarelli, Sarah Teetzel, and Heather L. Reid.

Author: Stephen Gaylord Miller
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300115291
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Presenting a survey of sports in ancient Greece, this work describes ancient sporting events and games. It considers the role of women and amateurs in ancient athletics, and explores the impact of these games on art, literature and politics.

Author: Zinon Papakonstantinou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317051122
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
From the eighth century BCE to the late third century CE, Greeks trained in sport and competed in periodic contests that generated enormous popular interest. As a result, sport was an ideal vehicle for the construction of a plurality of identities along the lines of ethnic origin, civic affiliation, legal and social status as well as gender. Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece delves into the rich literary and epigraphic record on ancient Greek sport and examines, through a series of case studies, diverse aspects of the process of identity construction through sport. Chapters discuss elite identities and sport, sport spectatorship, the regulatory framework of Greek sport, sport and benefaction in the Hellenistic and Roman world, embodied and gendered identities in epigraphic commemoration, as well as the creation of a hybrid culture of Greco-Roman sport in the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman imperial period.

Author: John Herrmann
Publisher: MFA Publications
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, proudly presents the original Olympics in all their sweaty, heroic glory. Like today, sports were a vital part of daily life in ancient Greece. "Games for the Gods" unearths the original traditions of athletics, highlighting both the fascinating similarities and the jarring differences between the ancient ways and our own. We might not be used to such Classical customs as associating athletic festivals with certain gods, seeing our athletes compete in the nude, or having them indulge in dirty fighting as accepted practice (then again...), but the excitement of competition, admiration for athletic skill, and adoration of champions--as well as several of the sports--are just as familiar to fans today as they were to the ancients. The Greek Games here come to life in a series of texts that explore the Olympics then and now, the origins of the games and various athletic events, and the ways in which the contests were prepared for and the victors honoured. With stunning illustrations of over 140 sculptures, vases, and coins, as well as photographs of modern athletes, "Games for the Gods" is a unique celebration of the Olympic spirit through the ages.