Special Lecture: Spoiled Sports

|| Special Lecture||
SPOILED SPORTS: Markets and the Corruption of Sport
with William Morgan, Professor at USC Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism.

In a market economy like ours, getting paid to do something well is a good thing. As a professor, I can personally attest to the value of being financially compensated for doing my job well. The same goes, of course, for athletes who achieve excellence in their chosen sport, whether that compensation is in the form of a scholarship or a direct monetary payoff. But financial compensation, to include the market norms that govern it, is not an unalloyed good. In fact, it can be a very bad thing indeed when market norms displace and crowd out the central goods and excellences that sport traffics in. I argue that such displacement and crowding out is what ails sport today, not to mention university life, politics, religion, and the like. In short, I argue that as the norms of the market have overspilled their boundaries, turning our market economy effectively into a full-blown market society, they have corrupted the norms and standards of excellence that characterize sport at its best. 

Reception immediately following lecture on ET A420.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT'S
COLLOQUIUM SERIES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ATHLETICS,
KINESIOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES.