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One Play Cannot be Known to Win or Lose a Game: a Fallibilist Account of Game
Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (2011)
  • Tamba Nlandu, John Carroll University
Abstract
This paper discusses what it means to be a good sport. It offers an account of sportsmanship rooted in the proper understanding of the limited role each participant plays during a specific sporting contest. It aims at showing that, from a fallibilist perspective, although it may perhaps be logically possible for a single play to win or lose a sporting event, it makes epistemologically no sense to single out a particular game action, moment or decision as the crucial one which determined victory or defeat. Our view, we shall argue, is consistent with the empirical nature of sporting activities. Since there can be no such a thing as a perfect game, and because no single known human mind is in a position to know with any degree of certainty how each act of game-playing relates to the outcome of a whole game, it makes almost no sense to assign whole-game success or failure to single acts of brilliance or failure.
Keywords
  • Sport,
  • Ethics
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Tamba Nlandu. "One Play Cannot be Known to Win or Lose a Game: a Fallibilist Account of Game" Sport, Ethics and Philosophy Vol. 5 Iss. 1 (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tamba_nlandu/2/