Athletic Enhancement, Human Nature and Ethics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Human Nature as a Promising Concept to Make Sense of the Spirit of Sport

   • Pieter Bonte, Jan Tolleneer, Paul Schotsmans, Sigrid Sterckx

   Pages 1-18

3. Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

      PDF

   2. Self, Other, Play, Display and Humanity: Development of a Five-Level Model for the Analysis of Ethical Arguments in the Athletic Enhancement Debate

      • Jan Tolleneer, Paul Schotsmans

      Pages 21-43

   3. Is Human Enhancement Unnatural and Would This Be an Ethical Problem?

      • Christian Lenk

      Pages 45-57

   4. Dignified Doping: Truly Unthinkable? An Existentialist Critique of ‘Talentocracy’ in Sports

      • Pieter Bonte

      Pages 59-86

4. Transgressing the Limits of Human Nature

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

      PDF

   2. Subhuman, Superhuman, and Inhuman: Human Nature and the Enhanced Athlete

      • Eric T. Juengst

      Pages 89-103

   3. Prometheus on Dope: A Natural Aim for Improvement or a Hubristic Drive to Mastery?

      • Trijsje Franssen

      Pages 105-123

   4. Outliers, Freaks, and Cheats: Constituting Normality in the Age of Enhancement

      • Darian Meacham

      Pages 125-146

5. The Normative Value of Human Nature

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-147

      PDF

   2. Doping Use As an Artistic Crime: On Natural Performances and Authentic Art

      • Andreas De Block

      Pages 149-162

   3. Something from Nothing or Nothing from Something? Performance-Enhancing Drugs, Risk, and the Natures of Contest and of Humans

      • M. Andrew Holowchak

      Pages 163-183

   4. Transhuman Athletes and Pathological Perfectionism: Recognising Limits in Sports and Human Nature

      • Michael J. McNamee

      Pages 185-198

6. Socio-Cultural and Empirical Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199

      PDF

   2. “Definitely Not for Women”: An Online Community’s Reflections on Women’s Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Recreational Sports

      • Marianne Raakilde Jespersen

      Pages 201-218

   3. Toward a Situated and Dynamic Understanding of Doping Behaviors

      • Denis Hauw

      Pages 219-235

   4. Restoring or Enhancing Athletic Bodies: Oscar Pistorius and the Threat to Pure Performance

      • Tara Magdalinski

      Pages 237-251

7. Practices and Policies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 253-253

      PDF

   2. Sports Physicians, Human Nature, and the Limits of Medical Enhancement

      • John Hoberman

      Pages 255-270

The book provides an in-depth discussion on the human nature concept from different perspectives and from different disciplines, analyzing its use in the doping debate and researching its normative overtones. The relation between natural talent and enhanced abilities is scrutinized within a proper conceptual and theoretical framework: is doping to be seen as a factor of the athlete’s dehumanization or is it a tool to fulfill his/her aspirations to go faster, higher and stronger? Which characteristics make sports such a peculiar subject of ethical discussion and what are the, both intrinsic and extrinsic, moral dangers and opportunities involved in athletic enhancement? This volume combines fundamental philosophical anthropological reflection with applied ethics and socio-cultural and empirical approaches. Furthermore guidelines will be presented to decision- and policy-makers on local, national and international levels. Zooming in on the intrinsic issue of what is valuable about our homo sapiens biological condition, this volume devotes only scant attention to the specific issue of natural talent and why such talent is appreciated so differently than biotechnological origins of ability. In addition, specific aspects of sports such as its competitive nature and its direct display of bodily prowess provide good reason to single out the issue of natural athletic talent for sustained ethical scrutiny.​

• Anti-doping ethics
• Athletic Enhancement
• Doping in sports
• Human Nature and enchancement
• Sports Ethics
• Sports enchancement

From the book reviews:

“The book collects contributions of different authors with diverging points of views … providing a rich analysis of one of the most controversial aspects of sports. … For those who work in the field of clinical bioethics (i.e., clinical ethics consultants or ethics committee members) and for those who are interested in implementing the knowledge of the relation between sport and doping, this book may serve as a very useful tool for in-depth analysis of these ethical issues.” (Luciana Caenazzo, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Vol. 35, 2014)

“This edited book presents a thorough discussion of enhanced athletics in relation to different conceptions of human nature. … The diversity of perspectives and approaches this book presents are meant to reach a wide range of readers. From philosophers to anthropologists to policy-makers, different sections will challenge and engage readers from a broad spectrum of scholarly backgrounds. … This book is an excellent comprehensive look at the debate, and it is particularly successful in presenting a diversity of frameworks.” (Heidi R. Pieroni, Doody’s Book Reviews, July, 2013)

• Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences Department of Kinesiology, KU Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium

  Jan Tolleneer

• Faculty of arts and Philosophy Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

  Sigrid Sterckx

• Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Bioethics Institute Ghent Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

  Pieter Bonte

Policies and ethics