Love, Rights, and Solidarity: Sports’ Potential for Recognition

Sport occupies a central role in modern society. Philosophers of sport suggest that sport can offer a realm of play by being structurally and logically independent from everyday life. But what ethical values can sport be seen to offer us, if any? Explanations are sought based on Honneth’s theory of recognition. Honneth views the presence of three forms of recognition - love, rights, and solidarity - as necessary conditions not only for a just society, but also for a society in which human beings can realize their potential and experience life as being good. Based on Honneth, I argue that sport can be seen as an arena with potential for an aggregated form of recognition. If practiced in the right way, sport has the potential to realize all three forms of recognition inherent in society.