Book Description
Philosophy is a crucial, yet often overlooked, part of kinesiology students' education. Practical Philosophy of Sport and Physical Activity, Second Edition, provides students with a thorough, clear, and practical introduction to the philosophy of physical activity and sport, and in doing so, prepares them for the ethical questions they will face as professionals.

This second edition has been significantly revised, and it has been enhanced to include the following features: ·Expanded instruction on practical ethics in physical activity, guiding students in how to rank values and turn those values into actions ·New material that emphasizes physical activity as well as sport, and provides specific holistic techniques for the practitioner in the workplace ·In-depth case studies, one on running up the score and the other on performance-enhancing substances, from previously published articles that have been reprinted in their entirety in the appendix ·Discussion questions based on the case studies that can be used to teach students how to follow a philosophical argument and come to their own conclusions

Practical Philosophy of Sport and Physical Activity, Second Edition, helps students examine key moral questions in sport. Its approach to the content helps students follow and dissect ethical arguments, think through philosophic issues, and apply theory to practice. Each chapter includes objectives, philosophical exercises, reviews, and study questions to reinforce understanding. Kretchmar's engaging writing style accentuates important topics of discussion, focusing the readers' attention on the philosophy behind the practice or strategy. As a result, students develop their philosophical skills, refine their personal philosophy concerning physical activity and sport, and learn that philosophy can be clear, practical, and holistic, rather than obscure, overly theoretical, and dualistic.

The text is arranged in four parts. Part I introduces students to the nature and methods of philosophy. Part II focuses on issues relating to the nature of the athlete or client and includes analyses of dualism, scientific materialism, and holism. Part III delves into kinesiology issues, including the nature of play, games, and competition, and Part IV provides expanded material on ethics, value choices, and active lifestyles.

This text provides students with the practical tools and specific techniques they need to think ethically and systematically, as they become skilled practitioners in the field of physical activity and sport. In doing so, it demystifies philosophy and reveals it as the guiding element in our understanding of, and approach to, activity, games, and competitions. ... Read more

Book Description
This engaging and informative text will hold the attention of students and scholars as they take a journey through time to understand the role that history and philosophy have played in shaping the course of sport and physical education in Western and selected non-Western civilizations.

Using appropriate theoretical and interpretive frameworks, students will investigate topics such as the historical relationship between mind and body; what philosophers and intellectuals have said about the body as a source of knowledge; educational philosophy and the value of physical education and/or sport; philosophical positions that have impacted the historical development of sport and physical education; the history of women in sport and physical education; the role and scope of sport and physical education in Ancient Greece and Rome; the Ancient Olympic Games; the relationship between sport and religion in ancient and modern times; the theoretical and professional development of physical education; the rise of sport in modern America; the history and politics of the modern Olympic Games; and the contributions of men, women, and social movements to the development of sport and physical education from ancient times to the modern era. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book about a great Coach and great team
Coach February is now Coach January.Undefeated season, Big XII Champions, beat the "greatest team of all time" to win the National Championship, and will continue to add trophies for the great University of Texas.

Unfulfilled Expectations
Like the coach's career, this book was long on promise and failed to deliver the goods when it counted. I would not recommend it.

Only a handful of coaches in America fully understand...
I, personally, have modeled my life after the philosophy Mack (affectionally known as "Coach February") lays out in his book.If you want to know about teamwork in the face of adversity or controversy, this is definitely the book for you.There are those critics that would point to Mack's empty trophy case (true, he has never won any kind of championship in all his years of head coach... conference or otherwise), but you have to look past the wins and losses to see what truly makes a coach successful.

My favorite chapter is entitled, "The Wind Don't Know Where the Wind is Going".His recount of the Red River Rivalry and how with maybe one or two bounces, they might have beaten Oklahoma and gone on to the National Title game where they would have beaten Miami.While he doesn't officially consider 2001 to be another National Championship for Texas, you can almost taste the trophy in the Mack Brown Center on Campus.

If you want to see how the mind of one of the greatest coaches and tradition builders of the past 50 years works, please pick up a copy of this book.

I have a copy autographed by the author as well as several players he talks about in the book.

I give it 5 stars. ... Read more

Book Description

With interest and participation in extreme and adventure sports growing year on year, the time is ripe for a thoughtful and analytical assessment of this phenomenon from a rigorous philosophical perspective.

This collection of essays is the first single-source treatment of adventure sports from an exclusively philosophical standpoint. The text offers students a uniquely focused reader of this burgeoning area of interest and provides scholars with a source book for further studies in this area.

Featuring contributions from well-respected writers in the field who each also have personal familiarity of participation in adventure and extreme sports, this is set to become a classic analysis of the intersections between philosophy and extreme experiences, encompassing essential related concepts of elation, danger, death, wilderness and authenticity.

Book Description
The principal subject of this modest manuscript is sport. Few subjects are at once more widely acclaimed, touch the popular imagination more deeply, but are less earnestly studied than sport. What little reflective thought has been devoted to the subject has been of a largely scientific (as distinct from a humanistic) type. Most of this thought concerns the biological, psychological, or sociological character of the activity as against its historical or philosophical dimensions. Although rarely spoken of in exacting historical or philosophical terms, an authentic understanding, appreciation, and practice of sport nonetheless depend necessarily on accounts that show its origin and development (on historical accounts) as well as on accounts that reveal its essential nature and purpose (on philosophical accounts). Together, historical and philosophical interpretations of sport -- the so-termed humanistic perspectives of sport -- demonstrate the basic place of sport in human life, the basic place of sport in the full relief of human experience as such. These accounts disclose what sport has been and what it is ultimately for. They reveal the grounding charms of sport in distinctly human terms and they also illumine the wider character of humanity itself (insofar as humanity has expressed itself as persistently as it has in sporting terms). Humanistic interpretations of the sort here advocated demonstrate both that sport forms an integral aspect of human experience and that it is also a fundamental expression of that experience. In the creative flow of human activity, sport has had a conspicuous (if a formally neglected) place and it therefore figures importantly in any serious examination of genuine human experience.

The purpose of this manuscript is to show, in broad overview, the origin, development, nature, and purpose of sport from its first appearance in the ancient primitive world to its elaborate place in contemporary modern civilization; to give a systematic and comprehensive account of sport as a function of the cultural events that have embodied it throughout its occasion in human affairs; and to do all of this under the interpretive gaze of an organic world view. The result is a synthetic summary of the accomplished historical and philosophical literature's collective judgment concerning sport in the wide context of human culture from the perspective of the organic thesis. The result is an organic philosophy of (world) sport history in which the essential factors (the characteristic and decisive factors, the dominant tendencies) concerning the origin, development, nature, and purpose of human culture and its sporting attributes are dutifully recounted and reflectively interpreted. According to the organic sense of life and sport, it is only by way of such a result that sport can be plausibly connected to the end of distinctly human experience and that human life itself can be waged in full accord with its own most basic and endearing tendencies.

The text works principally off of the encyclopedic and humanistic orientations of Hegel's organic metaphysics and philosophy of history. It thus begins with an account of the development of the physical world and of life in its various forms. It then turns to an examination of the origins and development of human culture in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods with special attention to sport. The governing argument of the text concludes that it is in the organic inclinations of the ancient, medieval, and modern eras that sport comes to its highest realization; it is in these inclinations that sport: overcomes the stylish claims against it as a plastic thing (among other plastic things) that secures strictly instrumental aims;acts in full accord with its own basic nature and purpose, with its own fundamentally playful nature and purpose;gets linked to the mainstream of human life and contributes meaningfully to the living of an authentically human existence;becomes a form of distinctly and uniquely human expression, a form of intrinsic human expression, a form of universal and fundamental human expression, not altogether unlike the arts;becomes an embodiment of our most compelling ideals, an embodiment by which neither our intellectual nor our bodily aspects are either indulged or overcome, but proportionately edified; and thusbecomes a form of human fulfillment as such. ... Read more

Book Description
The essays in this reader examine philosophical issues such as sportsmanship, violence, cheating, drug use, racism, sexism, and gender equity.

• Examines ethical issues in sports, such as sportsmanship, violence, cheating, drug use, racism, sexism, and gender equity.
  
• Includes essays by psychologists, sociologists, coaches, and sports writers.
  
• Gives the reader an understanding of the moral significance of sport, and how sports affect society.

Book Description
Philosophy and the Sciences of Exercise, Health and Sport answers these questions and others, in a unique interdisciplinary study that calls on researchers working in sport, exercise and health to reflect critically on the nature and aims of scientific enquiry in these disciplines. The book addresses the underlying assumptions and development of both the very idea of science itself and what shape scientific enquiries ought to take in the fields of exercise, health and sport.
Written by a range of prestigious and internationally respected philosophers, scientists and social scientists, each chapter addresses a key issue in research methodology. Questions raised by the authors include:
· Do natural and social scientists need to understand philosophy of science?
· Are statistics misused in sport and exercise science research?
· Is sport science research gender-biased?
· How do external and commercial interests skew professional guidelines in health and sport research?
· Can scientists make claims without attempting to falsify as well as to confirm their theses?
This unique text serves notice to sport and health researchers to think philosophically about their subject and its scientific bases. It is essential reading for postgraduate researchers seeking to establish a sound theoretical foundation for their work. ... Read more

Product Description
The source book expands upon issues introduced in each video program through the use of topic introductions, transcribed panel discussions, interviews, and keynote speeches. The material is organized into seven general subject areas and the General Table of Contents reflects these groupings. A special table of contents links each program with specific suggested readings ... Read more

Book Description
Leisure activities account for much of our time - and money. But are contemporary forms of leisure good for us? Are they really leisure? And how much does (and should) leisure matter? Classical philosophers paid attention to these questions. Increasingly, modern philosophers too are realizing the importance of leisure, and of a good leisure / work balance. Hayden Ramsay looks at the meaning of leisure, and the links between recreation, relaxation, virtue, and happiness. By focusing on leisure activities such as sport, travel, music and reading, Ramsay explores the need for good play in a good life. ... Read more

Book Description
Sport Technology: History, Philosophy and Technology arrives at a crucial time for the ethical consideration of elite sport. With new innovations in sports equipment, doping methods and human engineering on the horizon, the ethical issues raised by such technology have become noticeably acute. The problematisation of technology in sport has gone largely unnoticed in historical, philosophical and policy studies of sport, until the publication of this volume. Tracing the origins, present contexts and future of sport technology, this volume speaks to a multi-disciplinary audience, developing theory of technology and sport.

Sport Technology: History, Philosophy and Technology provides a foundation for theorising technological issues in sport, building upon themes in cultural studies of the cyborg, otherness and gender. The book begins with an initial contextualising of sport technology, tracing the historical roots of key mome ... Read more