The Importance of Ethics in Sport sample essay

The global questions that ethics tries to answer are, is this or that action morally right or wrong? does it have any moral value behind it? Such questions arise frequently in modern sports. Unfortunately, frequently flagrant unethical actions are cloaked under the mantle of rules and necessities of a particular sport. On the other hand, sports foster ethical responsibility and honor. Because of these two reasons, ethics is very important to contemporary world of sport.

In most writings in the ethics of contemporary sports, three families of theories have been adopted. Modern moral philosophy is dominated by two distinct theories of ethics in consequentialism or deontology. Over the past twenty years, a relatively recent period in philosophical thought, there has been a revival of virtue-theoretical work, Aristotle in particular, in mainstream ethics and in the ethics of contemporary sports.

Deontology is the classical theory of the right action. Before we act, we must consider those duties, usually in the form of principles or rights, which we owe others in our contact with them in all sports. The system of principles is usually thought to have its foundation in a super-rule - or the Golden rule - that one ought always to treat others with respect. To cheat, deceive, harm or lie to people is to disrespect them. It attempts to incorporate a system of guides to right conduct for participants and coaches engaged in sports. “Philosophers have simply assumed a deontological framework and applied to it to good effect without necessarily interrogating the theoretical basis upon which their sports ethics is based.”

Consequentialism consists of theories of the good, which justify actions according to their yielding the most favorable and least unfavorable consequences. The dominant strand of thinking here is "utilitarian," which is based upon the maximizing of "utility" or good. In distinguishing good from bad the potential consequences of different courses of action needed to be weighed up and acted upon in a fashion that maximizes good outcomes. There are very few sustained efforts at utilitarian thinking in sports.

Consequentialism and deontology are both equally universal in scope: moral rules apply in all sports and times, it is just that they have different moral principles (respect and utility).

Aristotle's virtue theory in mainstream and applied ethics is based upon good character, and the good life will be lived by those who are in possession of a range of virtues such as courage, sympathy, honesty, and the absence of vices such as cowardice, selfishness, dishonesty. Sports traditional function as role modeler for youth is premised upon this virtue theory.

Bibliography

1. Cruise, D. (2003). Sport Ethics: Concepts and Cases in Sport and Recreation. Thomson Educational Publishing.

2. Loland, S. (2002). Fair Play in Sport: A Moral Norm System, London: Routledge.

3. McNamee, M. (2004). Ethics plus Sport. Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network. Website: http://www.hlst.ltsn.ac.uk/ resources/ethics.html

4. Hayes, D. (2005). Aristotle’s Virtue Theory. Associated Content. Website: http://www.associatedcontent.com/ content.cfm?content_type=article&content_type_id=1134

5. Deontology and Ethics: Explaining Deontological Systems. (2005). About. http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/phil/ blfaq_phileth_deon.htm

6. Carlson, E. (1995). Consequentialism Reconsidered. Springer.

7. Bentham, J. (1934). Deontology. Longman.

8. Consequentialism. (2005). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism
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