B8906 - ETICA DELLO SPORT E INCLUSIONE

Learning outcomes

Understand the main ethical issues related to sport and critically reflect on their implications. By the end of the course, students will be able to outline the ethical principles that govern sports practice and distinguish what qualifies as a proper sporting activity from what does not. They will also be able to critically discuss topics such as (un)fair advantage, doping, human enhancement, as well as current ethical controversies concerning sports for people with disabilities, gender issues, and the ethical, social, and legal implications of wearable devices in sports.

Course contents

This course introduces the main themes of sport ethics and provides the conceptual tools to critically analyse the contemporary ethical issues that arise in sporting practice.

The main topics covered are:

• Definition of sport, constitutive and regulative rules.
  
  
• Main ethical theories applied to sport: introduction to teleological and deontological ethics and their application to the analysis of ethical dilemmas in sport.
  
  
• Doping: a brief history of doping in sport, the main arguments against doping and the main arguments in favour of doping and critical of anti-doping.
  
  
• Enhancement and genetic doping: differences from traditional doping and the main positions in the literature.
  
  
• Gender and inclusion: a historical overview of the division between female and male athletes in sport and the sex/gender verification tests adopted over time; analysis of the cases of Caster Semenya, Dutee Chand and Imane Khelif. Inclusion of women and trans subjectivities in sport.
  
  
• Disability and assistive technology: an overview of models of disability; the cases of Oscar Pistorius, Markus Rehm and Blake Leeper and the related CAS rulings on the use of prosthetics in competitions with able-bodied athletes.
  
  
• Sport and commercialisation: the commercialisation of sport and the issue of the objectification of the athlete.

The course is introductory and does not require any prior knowledge of philosophy or related disciplines.

Readings/Bibliography

For the exam, students must study the lecture slides and other articles or book sections that will be indicated on Virtuale.

Reference texts:

• Camporesi S., Partire (s)vantaggiati. Corpi bionici e atleti geneticamente modificati nello sport, Icaro Fandango, 2023.

• Reid H., Filosofia dello sport, Milano, Mondadori, 2011.

Teaching methods

Lectures with PowerPoint presentations and in-class discussions.

Assessment methods

Written exam with multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question for attending students, and two open-ended questions for non-attending students.

Teaching tools

PC, video projector.

Office hours

See the website of Emma Capulli