Baseball and Philosophy: Think
Eric Bronson
ISBN 10: 0812695569 ISBN 13: 9780812695564
Published by Open Court, 2004
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Soft cover
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Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00097478246
Synopsis:
Baseball and Philosophy brings together two high-powered pastimes: the sport of baseball and the academic discipline of philosophy. Eric Bronson asked eighteen young professors to provide their profound analysis of some aspect of baseball. The result offers surprisingly deep insights into this most American of games.
The contributors include many of the leading voices in the burgeoning new field of philosophy of sport, plus a few other talented philosophers with a personal interest in baseball. A few of the contributors are also drawn from academic areas outside philosophy: statistics, law, and history.
This volume gives the thoughtful baseball fan substancial material to think more deeply about. What moral issues are raised by the Intentional Walk? Do teams sometimes benefit from the self-interested behavior of their individual members? How can Zen be applied to hitting? Is it ethical to employ deception in sports? Can a game be defined by its written rules or are there also other constraints? What can the U.S. Supreme Court learn from umpiring? Why should baseball be the only industry exempt from antitrust laws? What part does luck play in any game of skill?
The contributors include many of the leading voices in the burgeoning new field of philosophy of sport, plus a few other talented philosophers with a personal interest in baseball. A few of the contributors are also drawn from academic areas outside philosophy: statistics, law, and history.
This volume gives the thoughtful baseball fan substancial material to think more deeply about. What moral issues are raised by the Intentional Walk? Do teams sometimes benefit from the self-interested behavior of their individual members? How can Zen be applied to hitting? Is it ethical to employ deception in sports? Can a game be defined by its written rules or are there also other constraints? What can the U.S. Supreme Court learn from umpiring? Why should baseball be the only industry exempt from antitrust laws? What part does luck play in any game of skill?
Reviews:
Put Sammy Sosa and Socrates into the same dugout, and soon the two are hotly debating whether batting against a flame-throwing pitcher fosters self-knowledge. Heavy hitters and deep thinkers do indeed tangle in this provocative and entertaining addition to the Popular Culture and Philosophy series. We learn, for instance, how in his famous .400 season of 1941, Ted Williams enacted the drama of a Socratic elanchos as he confronted the risk of failure through his very last at-bat. We learn, too, how Gaylord Perry violated the ethical imperatives of Kant by throwing spitballs, yet may still have satisfied the more elastic moral demands of Aristotle. The contributors view baseball from widely divergent perspectives, social to metaphysical, but most leaven their philosophical pondering with a puckish irreverence that allows Yogi Berra to translate St. Augustine and that asks Kierkegaard to lay down a bunt. And all of the contributors share an infectious love for a game inviting commentary that transcends sports cliche. Bryce Christensen
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Baseball and Philosophy: Think
Publisher: Open Court
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good