It is said the champions of the ancient Olympic Games received a crown of olive leaves, symbolizing a divine blessing from Nike, the winged goddess of victory. While the mythology of the ancient games has come to exemplify the highest political, religious, community, and individual ideals of the time, the modern Olympic Games, by comparison, are widely known as an international, bi-annual sporting event where champions have the potential to earn not only glory for their country, but lucrative endorsement deals and the perks of worldwide fame. The Olympics and Philosophy examines the Olympic Movement from a variety of theoretical perspectives to uncover the connection between athleticism and philosophy for a deeper appreciation of the Olympic Pillars of Sport, Environment, and Culture. While today’s Olympic champions are neither blessed by the gods nor rewarded with wreaths of olive, the original spirit and ancient ideals of the Olympic Movement endure in its modern embodiment. Editors Heather L. Reid and Michael W. Austin have assembled a team of international scholars to explore topics such as the concept of excellence, ethics, doping, gender, and race. Interweaving ancient and modern Olympic traditions, The Olympics and Philosophy considers the philosophical implications of the Games’ intersection with historical events and modern controversy in a unique analysis of tradition and the future of the Olympiad.
Table of Content
A Greatness of Olympic Proportions
Machiavelli, The Olympic Ideal, and The Southern Arrow
What’s More Than Gold
The Olympics and the Spirit of the Ancient Greeks
Go Tell the Spartans: HOnor, Courage, and Excellence in the Ancient Olympic Games
Soul of an Olympian
More than Games: Olympism as a Moral Approach to Sport
Olympism between Individualism and Transnationalism
Citius, Altius, Fortius, Virtuous
The Olympics and Steroids
What’s Wrong with Olympic Boxing?
Should the Olympics Be the Very Best?
The Strong Men Keep A Comin’: African American Athletic Performance and the Philosophy of Resistance
Olympic Amazons and the Cold War: The Rise and Fall of Gender Radicalism
Buns of Gold, Silver, Bronze: The State of Olympic Women’s Beach Volleyball
Boycotting Ethics in the Olympics
Patriotism and the Olympic Games
The Spirit of the Games: Aesthetics and the Ideology of Globalization
About the author
Michael W. Austin, associate professor of philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University, is the editor of the forthcoming Running and Philosophy: A Marathon for the Mind.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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