tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30379986.post49134857270343056..comments2023-12-10T07:55:27.177+00:00Comments on kenodoxia: Football and philosophyJames Warrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02262258553733864003noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30379986.post-84206568184507059922011-07-08T15:00:29.381+01:002011-07-08T15:00:29.381+01:00I agree with you. This made me think of the recent...I agree with you. This made me think of the recent Champions League final; Barca. played some of the most beautiful football I have ever seen. Now supposing that I were a Real Madrid supporter, I think that I would still be able to appreciate the mastery that Barca. displayed. But the fact that we can distinguish these so-called partisan concerns from the aesthetic aspect of the game is not enough to establish that one is "pure" and the other is not. <br /><br />In fact, as you suggest toward the end of your post, given that football is a contest between two sides, one might sketch an argument against Mumford like this:<br /><br />1) Any "pure" appreciation of X must involve every intrinsic aspect of X.<br />2) Partisanship is an intrinsic aspect of football.<br />3) Therefore, a "pure" appreciation of football involves partisanship.<br /><br />The premises are admittedly vague, but as I said, the argument is just meant as a sketch.<br /><br />The Champions League final also illustrates a way the distinction between partisan and non-partisan is inadequate, I think. I support neither Barca. nor a certain team from northern England that will remain nameless. However, given the team I do support, I take a rather inappropriate amount of pleasure in seeing those devils lose. So I was in fact rooting for Barca even though I had no interest in them in particular winning. I wanted the other team to lose; it didn't really matter who won as long as it wasn't them. In short, there are many reasons to prefer one team to another and often the preference is not really partisanship in the sense of "support". <br /><br />WV: platoniZētētikoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01364658185062796490noreply@blogger.com