Ars Vitae and Sport

Our study aims to contribute to the approach of leading an optimal life and especially to the role of sport and physical activities in this life.

First, we have tried to find the optimal personal qualities which may be proper for the ars vitae (the art of life). Five of them (creativity, calculation, cooperation, concentration, and credibility) were chosen (on the empirical bases of long-time ethical seminars with students studying physical education) and annotated. This was done taking into account the practical applicability in sport.

Further, we have focused on proper biodromal projects, which are based on some traditional models. We judge sport can significantly contribute to the study three of these; at the same time, they are very useful in the sphere of sport. Thus the opposites of the Dionysian and Apollonian tendency of life, and the authentic and inauthentic one, were chosen for closer analysis. The third proper model (hedonism versus asceticism) was examined in an earlier study. More attention has been paid to antagonistic and integrative models of authenticity, and our conclusion was that we ought to consider them in mixed form when periods of antagonistic authenticity are replaced with periods of integrative authenticity in real life. Concrete examples have been taken from the field of sport. Kretchmar’s structural model of the good life is connected with this field more firmly and has been critically examined in the last chapter.

In conclusion, we name four conditions for the creation of optimal biodromal projects and for forming the real ars vitae.