Possibilities of Understanding Modern Sport on the Basis of Aristotelian Theory

Abstract

Why start from Aristotle when considering the extent and content of international cooperation in modern sport? The answer is that Aristotle (and Plato) must be regarded as the founders of the European way of thinking (and also of the American way of thinking which, as is generally accepted, stems from the European). It is only with knowledge of the basic structure of European philosophy as a whole — which has always remained the same even though the contents have become more complicated (as in the case of Hegel for instance) — that we are really in a position to enter into a fruitful dialogue with the philosophical conceptions of other cultures. But if Aristotle (and Plato) are a key to this very European tradition, which determines our own way of thinking even today and which they were the first to elaborate, then the modern sports movement and the appropriate concept of it is to be found within this intellectual unity of European philosophy, too. Thus the question of international understanding concerning problems of modern sport attains a deeper sense.