How to Think About and Resolve Ethical Dilemmas in Sports with William J. Morgan, Ph.D.
Kinesiology 590: Kinesiology Colloquium
“How to Think About and Resolve Ethical Dilemmas in Sports”
William J. Morgan, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy
University of Southern California
Thursday, October 28, 2021
3:05 PM – 4:20 PM
127 Noll Laboratory, University Park
Zoom Link: https://psu.zoom.us/j/98987962074
Abstract: The history of sport is replete with ethical controversies of one sort or another. This is especially true of the contemporary era owing, no doubt, to its extraordinary emphasis on athletic success. In this seminar, I present several different examples of such ethical dilemmas in sport that defy easy resolution. Next, I consider the main contending ethical theories of sport (formalism, broad internalism, conventionalism, and the moral entrepreneur) and examine how each goes about trying to provide a plausible solution to these theories in guiding us through some subset of the different variety of ethical problems sport presents, no one of them is capable of resolving all such problems. In the end then, I opt for a pluralistic approach to ethical inquiry in sport.