体育・スポーツ哲学研究 Vol. 38(2016) No. 2

It has been noted that in the course of athletic pursuits, an athlete encounters not only glory, but hardship as well. This is especially apparent in the realm of competitive sports. How might we interpret those athletes we see who are nevertheless passionately engaged in sports?
The purpose of this inquiry is to demonstrate the interpretability of athletes in terms of excellence and virtue, as well as serve as an introduction to a theory of athletes.
The inquiry begins with an overview of the athlete theory. This is followed by a consideration of concepts of excellence in terms of their theoretical application to athletes. The inquiry then proceeds into an investigation aimed at revealing and theoretically constructing an effective analytical method for utilizing concepts of virtue and excellence based on arete (ἀρετή) in service to a theory of athletes.
In summary, it was revealed that teleology based on the inherent nature of athletes could be a useful tool to interpret the essential being of athletes. An athlete’s being can be interpreted by considering arete, with the discussion functionally based on both excellence and virtue.
In conclusion, the theory of athlete in this study has revealed that excellence of an athlete cannot be an examination of only the “athlete’s arete”, but it has to consider arete, the standpoint of virtue as well. And a concept of the “good” is related. By examining an “athlete’s arete” in this study, it have introduced the evolving potential of the athlete theory.

A dance unit called “Eiko&Koma” by Eiko Otake and Takashi Otake has been an extremely highly-admired artist in American dance community for more than 40 years. Eiko&Koma has been creating their own workshop style called “Delicious Movement Workshop” (DMW). By using the qualitative research approach (GTA), this paper aims to grasp the basic characteristics of Eiko’s instructional words toward the students in the two basic programs (called “scores”) of DMW, “Sleeping” and “Sleeping Together”, which will intensify and deepen the understanding of DMW structures, and also provides the knowledge related to the instructional words which the physical expression educators can refer to.
In the result, through the case studies, we extracted 4 core categories such as [Time(successive)], [Relationship between Oneself and Others], [Image of Nature ], [Consciousness toward Body] and 8 concepts and we linked them into a theoretical mode (Eiko’s words’structure model). From these results, it became apparent that Eiko’s “instructional words” functions as an important tool to induce the creative and expressive movements from the students. The words dissolves the students’ daily senses toward the body and lead them to the unusual, non-daily life world.

This essay attempts to identify the meaning of the expanding experience (EE) that emerges through the practice of sports activity. The author shows the meaning of EE as a reflective experience rather than a living experience and reconsiders the aspect of this experience from the perspectives of perception and feeling, examining its difference from dissolving experience (DE). In this essay, the characteristics of EE are described through the development of the relationship between the self and the other. When two judoka throw each other and be thrown as if they are one, or, when runners feel each other’s physical pain, the experiences are termed “dissolving experiences”, which are living and subjective experiences. There is a lack of objective feeling in this kind of experience. Also, it is considered that DE emerges through a widening of the origination of sensation: it is a factor of empathizing with the other, or understanding their feelings at the physical level. DE shifts toward EE through the perception of this experience as an object. When both the self and the opponent reflect DE, which is irrational and beyond both athletes’ control, then the experience has emerged as the representative object and has become EE for them. Both athletes come to recognize the representation or the personality of the other as peers who engage in sports activities together. We can find EE for both athletes in this situation. Thus, EE is an experience which athletes cannot share with spectators but only with other athletes.

Working in accordance with Pierre de Coubertin’s peace thoughts, the Olympic movement considers the promotion of world peace its mission. This thought has been passed down the generations as ‘Fundamental Principle of Olympism’. However, achieving world peace by staging the Olympic Games is impossible, and terrorist attacks and boycotts have served as critical elements undermining Olympism.
As this thought of establishing a peaceful society was the cause of de Coubertin’s desire to revive the Olympics, previous research has focused on examining statements regarding peace in the Olympic movement-related literature. However, it is as yet unclear how the peace proposed by Olympism is to be achieved in practice, and this constitutes an ongoing issue in the current field of research.
First, this paper surveys the body of previous research on Olympism and de Coubertin’s thinking. Then, citing the peace thought of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, it attempts to examine what contribution to world peace of Olympism is meant to signify in concrete terms.According to Kant, ‘nature’ is the guarantor of perpetual peace. Human conduct, guided by nature, evolves through ‘competition’ and progresses through the mutual understanding that resolution of conflict leads to a state of peace. Furthermore, Kant believed that our world, guided by nature’s designs, was consistently historical; thus, ‘historical investigations’ may enable us to believe in the future.
Therefore, the manner in which Olympism is supposed to contribute to world peace is founded on ‘competition’ and ‘historical investigations’ and the practice of both leads to positive progress towards peace.