Wednesday, June 16, 2010

world cup and more

Martin's high school soccer coach is in S. Africa to catch the cup and more. Here's part of his initial blog:

"So here is my current sticking point in my search for truth. Existentialism and pluralism seem to be the dominating philosophies of our day. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel their pull. With the exposure we have to different philosophies, beliefs, religions and cultures, how can we possibly say that anything is right or wrong? It feels like we are disrespecting others and their experiences. The problem is we have no way then of establishing right and wrong and everything is acceptable." All I can say is this guy makes for an interesting sports banquet.

Philosophy and soccer go hand and hand (poor word choice). There's Sartre deeply profound remark: "Au football, tout est compliqué par la presence de l'équipe adverse." (in soccer, everything's complicated by the presence of the other team) And Camus noted,"Tout ce que je sais de plus sûr à propos de la moralité et des obligations des hommes, c'est au football que je le dois." (The most certain things I learned about morality and duty I owe to soccer) Camus played keeper for a junior club in Algeria.

Go clockmakers!!!!

2 comments:

James R said...

I'm well into my birthday present and, while I now understand how soccer explains the gangster's paradise, the pornography of sects, and the Jewish question, I haven't gotten to how soccer explains existentialism or pluralism.

Go cheesemakers!!!

Big Myk said...

Somehow soccer leads to philosophical musings (perhaps all sports do this).

Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.
Bill Shankly, English soccer manager.