Applying Philosophic Analysis to Sport:
The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice applying philosophic methods. For this assignment, your challenge is to study the nature of sport using
inductive, intuitive, and deductive reasoning. Using the table below, fill in the assignment. Your score will be determined by how well you apply the tools to draw
accurate insights into the nature of sport.
Topic
Inductive
Reasoning
Your Examples of Sport
Write out five examples of sport here (e.g. Tennis, Basketball, etc)
1. Basketball
2. Football
3. Baseball
4.Boxing
5.Powerlifting
Three Generalizations Common to All 5 Examples
Look at the five examples of sport and identify three generalizations you
can draw from the five examples
1. Sports all have a set of rules that can be applied across the board
2.sport involves a person/group aiming to be victorious or beat another
3. Sports can have different objectives while still allowing people to
compete/play the same sport
Intuitive
reasoning
Starting Example where Sport is clearly present:
Variation 1 Example:
Example 1
An NBA regular season basketball game
people playing a game of 21 at the gym
Was sport still
present in
example 1?
What does the difference between the starting example and variation 1 tell us
about sport?
Variation 2 Example:
The example shows that sport does not have to be officiated, or professional for it
to be a sport. Players are playing basketball, a sport, in a casual setting, and
competing for the same goal. Because of the general setting of rules, players
know how to play based on how the rules were established.
people playing H.O.R.S.E at the gym.
Yes
Was sport still
present in
example 2?
What does the difference between the starting example and variation 2 tell us
about sport?
What do these variations tell us about sport?
Yes
People are still competing in basketball when playing H.O.R.S.E, even though the
objectives might not be the same. There are still rules, there is still going to be a
winner.
That sport can be varied and does not have to be specifically played in a
professional setting. Everybody can play sports and compete with each
other.
Deductive
Reasoning
Remember:
Premises can
be either a
fact (All
sports
require
rules) or a
relation (If
Peter breaks
the rules, he
is not playing
the sport)
Premise 1: (Either state a fact or show a relation)
Premise 2: (Either state a fact or show a relation)
A sport needs to have a winner.
If somebody cheats, then they are not playing the sport correctly.
Premise 3: (Either state a fact or show a relation)
Conclusion (Be sure this follows from your 3 Premises)
All regulated sports have officials to keep the event fair.
Sport is a means of competing where rules and regulations are used to
ensure fair competition to decide a winner.