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.