Sports Risk and the Human Ideal

Achievement in sports involves risks to life and limb, body and mind. And yet we often pursue human ideals of excellence through athletic endeavor. How should we understand these risks and these ideals? How should we balance reward and risk?
An ideal without risk is no ideal at all.

Achievement in sports involves risks to life and limb, body and mind. And yet we often pursue human ideals of excellence through athletic endeavor. How should we understand these risks and these ideals? How should we balance reward and risk?
What happens if the people who bear the risk are not the same people as those who reap the benefits — if athletes are unpaid or uninsured, if they participate without consent?
Join an all-star panel for a lively discussion of these questions about athletic achievement in self and society. Panelists include:

Darrell Griffith, UofL and NBA basketball great;
Gwen Bradford, Rice University, author of “Achievement”
Gordon Marino, St. Olaf College; professional boxing trainer who writes on boxing for the New York Times, HBO, and formerly the Wall Street Journal
Heather Reid, Morningside College, author of “Aretism: an Ancient Sports Philosophy for a Modern Sports World”;
Calvin Warren, George Washington University, author of “Ontological Terror: Blackness, Nihilism, and Emancipation”
Event sponsored by:
The University of Louisville Department of Philosophy; Liberal Studies Project; Society for Applied Philosophy; Muhammad Ali Center; and Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society.
Free and open to the public. All welcome! Hors d’oeuvres in the LeRoy Neiman Gallery.
Register at http://​attend​.com/sportsrisk2017