プラトンの運動競技論序説 : スポーツ概念のギリシア的把握に向けて <原著>

An Introduction to Plato's Theory of Athletics : For an Understanding of the Concept of Sport in Ancient Greece

Kiniwa Kohki

スポーツ史研究

This paper aims to consider Plato's theory of athletics from the three viewpoints of techne, soma, and pathos, focusing on his descriptions of athletics. It seems that these three viewpoints give a broad perspective for us to consider, athletics not only in ancient Greece, but also sport in modern society. This is because the three Greek words, techne, soma, and pathos, have such large meanings which are different from modern words like technique, body and emotion, and the three viewpoints would enable us to relativize the modern view of sport and to understand the concept of sport in a larger context.

In Plato, athletics is not what caused by only the human body (soma), but the very intellectual practice in a connection with mathematics and expertise (techne) of measurement. Athletics means the contest with an opponent's body, making use of one's excellence of body (strength, speed, size, etc), and it provides pleasure for the people who watch it. Moreover, it is possible to find the love for victory, mettle, craftiness and wildness which are beyond moral precepts as the peculiar affections (pathos) and dispositions in athletics.

However, Plato does not always evaluate athletics positively, since athletics make the human body and soul unbalanced towards ones which can adapt themselves only to a specific environment, like the animal body (soma) and soul. According to Plato, athletics should be regarded as dangerous for the city state and education, since it has the same immoral characters as the other traditional cultures (e.g. poem, play and the other arts).

Though sport is often discussed from the viewpoints of morality and education in the present age, it is peculiar that the essence of athletics is drawn from various angles in Plato. Plato's theory of athletics would enable us to understand the pluralistic values of sport without being tied to the viewpoints of morality and education, and to reply to the problems of sport, such as sport sciences, doping, fair play, etc from various angles.

Sports and physical training [ 780 ]

jpn

スポーツ史学会

Copyright (c) 2007 スポーツ史学会

[ISSN] 0915-1273

[NCID] AN10300540