The Importance of Virtue in Sport Frankena Gibson

What virtue does Frankena demand?

Why is virtue important? n A virtue is an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which tends to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods. MacIntyre

Importance of Virtue... n “without them, without justice, courage, and truthfulness, the practice could not resist the corrupting power of the institutions. n Virtues needs: sophrosune and phronesis. Not abusing ones position and knowing what is due to others.

What is a practice? n pp. 72. n What is the difference between internal goods and external goods? n Why can only those who practice know the internal goods? n Which is more important? n Internal goods of practice only accessible to the virtuous, not to the merely technically adept.

What is Nietzsche’s overman? n Man of power...pp. 67

Internal Goods n pp/ 73. The athlete who is not rewarded by internal goods, and who violates the practice in his quest for external goods is easier to understand discusses within this framework. He is not doing wrong, rather he is missing out.

The importance of dialogue and conversation n External goods can provide a reason, but internal goods draw intention. Without intention, the understanding of internal goods, our athletic enterprises become empty motion. Without the willingness to converse, our motives become meaningless activity, the dead grist of the positivist’s mill. Our lives, our jobs, and our games all become meaningless without the openness to conversation and possibility. The intention is to continue the conversation. pp. 91.

Athlete as Artist, and Creative Overman n The emphasis is on the internal goods of the practice, the possibilities within the game of self-expression, the chances of transcending the limits of the game, and of playing with that effortless effort in the artless art. What we might describe as letting the game play you. This is the highest peak of athletics and not victor in the contest. This is the overman at his most creative, with power over himself to go beyond the good and bad of the practice and play directly with the game. pp. 107.