The Philosophy of Football PDF
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF FOOTBALL Human beings are the only creatures known to engage in sport. We are sporting animals,andourfavouritepastimeoffootballisthebiggestsportspectacleonearth. The Philosophy of Football presents the first sustained, in-depth philosophical inves- tigation of the phenomenon of football. In explaining the complex nature of football, the book draws on literature in sociology, history, psychology and beyond, offering real-life examples of footbal- ling actions alongside illuminating thought experiments. The book is organized around four main themes considering the character, nature, analysis and aesthetics of football. It discusses football as an extra-ordinary, unnecessary, rule-based, competitive, skill-based physical activity, articulated as a social (as opposed to nat- ural) kind that is fictional in character, and where fairness or fair play – contrary to much sport ethical discussion – is not centre stage. Football, it is argued, is a con- structive-destructive contact sport and, in comparison to other sports, is lower scoring and more affected by chance. The latter presents to its spectators a more unpredictable game and a darker, more complex and denser drama to enjoy. The Philosophy of Football deepens our understanding of the familiar features of the game, offering novel interpretations on what football is, how and why we play it, and what the game offers its followersthatmakes usso eagerlyawait match day. This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the world’s most popular game or in the philosophical or social study of sport. Steffen Borge is Professor of Philosophy at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø. ETHICS AND SPORT Series editors Mike McNamee, University of Wales Swansea Jim Parry, University of Leeds The Ethics and Sport series aims to encourage critical reflection on the practice of sport, and to stimulate professional evaluation and development. Each volume explores new work relating to philosophical ethicsand thesocialand cultural study of ethical issues. Each is different in scope, appeal, focus and treatment but a bal- ance is sought between local and international focus, perennial and contemporary issues, level of audience, teaching and research application, and variety of practical concerns. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy Edited by Mike McNamee Philosophy and Nature Sports Kevin Krein Emotion in Sports Philosophical Perspectives Yunus Tuncel Sport, Ethics, and Neurophilosophy Jeffrey Fry and Mike McNamee Doping in Cycling Interdisciplinary Perspectives Edited by Bertrand Fincoeur, John Gleaves and Fabien Ohl Sport and Spirituality Edited by R. Scott Kretchmar and John B. White The Philosophy of Football Steffen Borge For a complete series list please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Ethics-and-Sport/ book-series/EANDS THE PHILOSOPHY OF FOOTBALL Steffen Borge Firstpublished2019 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 52VanderbiltAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2019SteffenBorge TherightofSteffenBorgetobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook ISBN:978-0-367-18091-1(hbk) ISBN:978-0-367-18092-8(pbk) ISBN:978-0-429-05947-6(ebk) TypesetinBembo byTaylor&FrancisBooks CONTENTS Preface vii Introduction: A funny old game 1 Football and the human condition 1 About the book 3 1 The character of football: This is Anfield 9 Introduction 9 Preliminaries 10 Some kinds of make-believe 13 Sport is extra-ordinary 15 Aliefs, football behaviour and the purpose of football 19 Football and proto-pretence 30 Objections and replies 46 Conclusion 58 2 The nature of football: A game of two halves 69 Introduction 69 The variety of formalism and social kinds 70 The social kind of sport 83 The social kind of football 94 The football form and functions 100 Objections and replies 107 Conclusion 119 vi Contents 3 The analysis of football: Four four two 122 Introduction 122 An outline of Suits’s analysis of sport 123 Football and prelusory goals 124 Football and limited means 129 Football and constitutive rules 133 Football and the lusory attitude needed for playing the sport 138 Football and physical skills 157 Football and wide following with a wide level of stability 160 Refereeing and match minding and maintenance 160 Objections and replies 165 Conclusion 186 4 The aesthetics of football: Football, bloody hell 190 Introduction 190 Fairness of result vs. the drama of football 191 Free beauty and football 193 An agon aesthetics of football 199 Real values and fictional values 215 Aesthetic engagement resistance 220 Silly questions and the football fiction 223 Objections and replies 226 Conclusion 248 Conclusion: They think it’s all over 256 References 260 Index 278 PREFACE This work has benefited from colleagues and friends who have read it and given feedbackat some stageorother ofthe writing.I amverygrateful toall who gave of their valuable time.In particular, I’d like to thank Jussi Haukiojaand Paisley Living- ston,whometiculouslylabouredthroughthewholemanuscript;GrahamMcFeeand BillMorgan,whogaveChapters3and4athoroughgoing-over;andLevKreft,from whom Chapters 2 and 5 have benefited. Others who have come to my rescue by reading parts of this work are Mitch Berman, Gunnar Breivik, R.A. Briggs, Gordon Burghardt, Stephen Davies, Paul Davis, Marzenna Jakubczak, Filip Kobiela, Scott Kretchmar, Signe Højbjerre Larsen, Alyssa Ney, Jim Parry, Tony Pellegrini, Murray Smith,DeborahVossen,MargretheBruunVaageandBrianWeatherson.Thankyou! Parts of this book have been presented at various conferences and talks at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,PedagogicalUniversityofCracow,UniversityofBrighton,Universityof Gloucestershire, University of Kent, University of Milan/Vita-Salute San Raffaele University,UniversityofPorto,UniversityofSunderland,UniversityofTromsøand UniversityofTurku.Iamgratefultothepeoplewhoacceptedmeattheirconference orinvitedmetotalkattheiruniversity,andtoeveryonewhoshoweduptomypre- sentationsandtalksandtriedtoshowmetheerrorsofmyways.Aspecialthanksgoes to Mike McNamee for his encouragement and continuous support of my work. WithoutMike,Idoubtthisbookwouldhavebeenwritten.Someofthematerialin thisbookhasalreadybeenairedinwrittenform.Mostimportantly,Chapter5builds onBorge2015c,whilepartsofBorge2010a,Borge2015bandBorgeandMcNamee 2017havealsofoundtheirwayintothebook. INTRODUCTION A funny old game Football and the human condition Thisisabookaboutthehumancondition.Inparticular,itisaboutwhatappearsto be a unique feature or quality of human existence found nowhere else in the animal kingdom – our ability and willingness to engage in sports as practitioners and spectators. It is a book about association football, which is known throughout most of the world simply as football. It is about how we can understand our fas- cination with the so-called beautiful game within a broader theoretical framework. We are, as far as we know, the only species that plays football. Theuniquenessofhumans,whichuntilfairlyrecentlywasmoreorlesstakenfor granted, has turned out to be surprisingly hard to pin down. There have been many attempts to pick out a feature (quality) or features (qualities) of humans that set them aside from all other animals and make them special. Obviously, it may be the case that humans are not special or that our uniqueness does not lie in there being a feature or features that no other living creatures have, but rather that an amalgam or collections of features give the assumed unique end result of human beings. Sticking to the game of identifying that unique human feature or features, perhaps the most famous attempt is the definition of humans as rational animals – a demarcation associated with Aristotle. Unfortunately, trying to understand ration- ality is a notoriously slippery business; so one way of approaching the question without falling into the quagmire of attempting to define rationality has been to focus on capabilities that serve as good indicators of a rational mind. One prominent candidate here was the definition of humans as tool-using animals. [T]ool use has long been considered to be an indicator of rational thought. Becausetooluseinvolvesfindingorconstructinganobjectthatisutilizedasan extension of the body to achieve a specific goal, some think that tool use
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