I'm a Person Too - A New Philosophic Approach to Understanding the Athletic Role Model
Open Access
Author:
Copeland, Adam Almquist
Graduate Program:
Kinesiology
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 29, 2016
Committee Members:
Francisco Javier Lopez Frias, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
sport athlete role model moral virtue culture philosophy kinesiology
Abstract:
This thesis recounts and reevaluates the popular and scholarly debate on the athletic role model. It analyzes the most relevant arguments for and against the conception of the athletic role model, and it argues for a new approach. Sport holds an important place in society, and athletes are greatly celebrated. If morally evolving people look to athletes for an instructive example of how to navigate life, then it is important to justify that relation through rigorous philosophic investigation. This investigative philosophic thesis considers both the place of the athlete and sport’s ability to develop role models. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, and evidence from literature, law, psychology, sociology, and philosophy is incorporated to construct a broadly-established, widely-applicable approach to understanding the athlete as a role model. Offering fans a means for better discerning which athletes are worthy of reverence, and offering athletes the chance to explore what they believe to be their good life, are essential tenets of the new approach presented in this thesis.