With the campaign for women's participation in international and Olympic ski jumping as a practical case, sport's potential for recognition of individual rights is explored. In line with Honneth's influential ethical theory, recognition of rights refers to a mutual recognition between persons of each other as rational and responsible agents with an equal right to take part in the public formation and development of their community or practice. The argument is that women ski jumpers were entitled to compete as they had actual and/or potential capabilities and skills to contribute in the public formation and development of their sport. Their exclusion was a violation of individual rights. At a more general level, sport is discussed as a sphere for recognition of rights. It is argued that the basic principles of equal opportunity to take part and to perform make sport a particularly clear and potent sphere for such recognition, and also for the identification of rights violations. In sport, rights, or the violation of rights, are demonstrated in concrete and embodied ways. It is concluded that struggles for recognition and individual rights are a continuous process in sport as in most other human institutions and practices.

This article examines whether boxing, despite -or perhaps because -its destructive potential can be an arena for the formation of selfhood. Based on Honneth's theory of recognition (1995), I suggest that boxing can be an arena for recognition in the form of love and therefore essential for the construction of selfhood. My central thesis is that boxing can cultivate love, trust and knowledge in and of oneself-elements crucial to the formation of selfhood. By taking a closer look at the three forms of boxing -basic conditioning, sparring and the boxing match (competition) -I suggest that these different ways of practice have different potential for cultivating these elements. I conclude that due to contextual and internal factors, the boxing match does not fulfil its potential. However, sparring can provide relationships of care that results in regimes of self-care; trust in oneself and others, as well as self-knowledge; all building stones in the construction of selfhood. I round off with a suggestion to modify the boxing match in order to realize its potential for realizing both play and selfhood.

Sport occupies a central role in modern society. Philosophers of sport suggest that sport can offer a realm of play by being structurally and logically independent from everyday life. But what ethical values can sport be seen to offer us, if any? Explanations are sought based on Honneth’s theory of recognition. Honneth views the presence of three forms of recognition - love, rights, and solidarity - as necessary conditions not only for a just society, but also for a society in which human beings can realize their potential and experience life as being good. Based on Honneth, I argue that sport can be seen as an arena with potential for an aggregated form of recognition. If practiced in the right way, sport has the potential to realize all three forms of recognition inherent in society.

No abstract

No abstract