Theme 1 The Olympic Idea

Introduction:The Olympic Idea

For most people,I suppose,the word Olympic will conjure up images of the Olympic Games,in every four years between elite athletes representing their country or city-states in inter-communal competition.

Most people,too will have heard of an Olympiad?Although it is sometimes though to refer to a particular Games.It refers in fact to a four-year period,whose opening is celebrated by Games,during which Games may or may not be held.

Fewer however will heard of Olympism The philosophy developed by the founder of the Modern Olympic Movement,Baron Pierre de Coubertin（1863～1937）,a French aristocrat who had been much influenced by the British public school tradition of sport in education.This philosophy has as its focus of interest not just the elite athlete,but everyone;not just a short truce period,but the whole of life;not just sport as an activity,but also as a formative and developmental influence contributing to desirable characteristics of individual personality and social life.

Olympism-a universal social philosophy

For Olympism is a social philosophy which emphasizes the role of sport in world development,international understanding,peaceful co-existence,and social and moral education.De Coubertin understood,towards the end of the nineteenth century,that sport was about to become a major growth point in popular culture-and that,as physical activity grounded in rule-adherence,it was apparently universalisable,providing a contact point across cultures.

A universal philosophy by definition applies to everyone,regardless of nation, race,gender,social class,religion or ideology,and so the Olympic Movement has worked for a coherent universal representation of itself-a concept of Olympism which identifies a range of values to which each nation can sincerely commit itself whilst at the same time finding for the general idea a form of expression which is unique to itself.Generated by its own culture,location,history,tradition and projected future.

De Coubertin,being a product of late nineteenth-century liberalism,emphasized the values of equality,fairness,justice,respect for persons,rationality and understanding,autonomy,and excellence.These are values which span nearly 3000 years of Olympic history,although some of them may be differently interpreted at different time.De Coubertin said:“but now Olympia...has been rebuilt or rather renovated under forms which are different because modern,yet steeped in a kindred atmosphere?”

The contemporary task for the Olympic Movement is to further this project:to try to see more clearly what its Games（and sport in wider society）might come to mean.This task will be both at the level of ideas and action.If the practice of sport is to be pursued and developed according to Olympic values,the theory must strive for a conception of Olympism which will support that practice.

The idea of Pierre de Coubertin

The considered ideas of the founder of the Modern Olympic Movement.Pierre de Coubertin set out in mature article the Philosophical Foundations of Modern Olympism which clarifies the idea of Olympism,it refers to:

1.A religion of sport（religion here refers centrally to the moral of sport）;

2.An aristocracy,an elite（but egalitarian and meritocratic）;

3.Chivalry（comradeship and rivalry-suspension of exclusively national sentiments）;

4.Truce（the temporary cessation of quarrels,disputes and misunderstandings）;

5.Rhythm（this a reference to the ancient Olympiad as representing a natural cycle of time and recurrence,just like the harvest and the phases of the moon）;

6.The young Adult Male individual（De Coubertin said:I personally do not approve of the participation of women in public competitions...in the Olympic Games,as in the contests of former times,their primary role should be to crown the victors.”）;

7.Beauty-artistic and literary creation（De Coubertin advocated and organized Olympic arts competition alongside Games.）;

8.Peace,promoted by mutual respect based on mutual understanding（related to the ancient idea of truce,but with the modern worry about the dangers and waste associated with warfare.）;

9.Let us also add:participation and competition.De Coubertin said in London at the close of the 1908 Games:

“Last Sunday,in the course of the ceremony organized at St Paul in honor of the athletes,the bishop of Pennsylvania recalled this in felicitous words:‘the important thing in these Olympiads is less to win than to take part in them,...’The important thing in life is not victory but struggle;the essential is not to have won but to have fought well.”

The philosophical Anthropology of Olympism

We need to try to find a way to organize our thoughts in relation to all these i deas in order.If possible,to pull them together into a framework that renders them systematic and coherent.My guiding thought lies in the status of Olympism as a social,political and educational ideology.And such ideology necessarily appeals to a philosophical anthropology-an idealized conception of the human Beijing towards which the ideology strives in its attempted social reproduction of the individual.

A philosophical anthropologist tries to create a theory about human nature by thinking about the human being at the most general level.Hoberman writes about the differing political conceptions of sport,but finds it necessary to refer to several levels of explanation and theoring:“Have distinct political anthropologies or idealized models of the exemplary citizen which constitute complex answers to the fundamental question of philosophical anthropology:what is a human being.”

In order to try to fill out just what the ideas that have been handed down from classical times,to be reinterpreted and re-specified we need to examine two central ideas.

The Ideas of Kalos Kogathos and Arete

Lenk says:

“Any representatives of the Olympic Movement combine these values together to form a picture of the human being harmonious balanced intellectually and physical in the sense of the Greek.”

This is also a theme in Nissiotis:

The Olympic ideal is what qualifies sport exercise in general as a means for education the whole man as a conscious citizen of the world...The Olympic idea is that exemplary principle which expresses the deeper essence of sport as an authentic education process through a continuous struggle to create healthy and virtuous man in the highest possible way in the image of the Olympic winner and athlete.

Eyler pursues the meaning of the Olympic virtue of excellence in performance and in character,through Homer,early philosophers,Pinder and Pausanias.He concludes:

“In summary,arête has several meanings-distinction,duty,excellence,fame, glorious deeds goodness heroism...valor and virtue.Some of the many implications of these meanings contextually are...man is born,grows,old,and dies;per formance is not without risks;winning is all;man achieves by his own skills...human performance is the quintessence of life;and finally man is the measure of all things and the responsible agent.He quotes kitto:‘what moves a Greek warrior to heroism is not a sense of duty as we understand it duty towards others,it is rather a duty towards oneself.’He strives after that which we translate virtue or excellence.（the Greek Arete）”.

Paleologos indicates the mythical origins of the Ancient Games in the deeds of one of the great heroes of antiquity.Hercules:

“With the twelve labors depicted by the bas-relief on the two metopes the Temple of Zeus.The world is presented with content of the moral teachings which Olympia intended with the Games.”

The idea is that the sculptures of the demi-God Hercules in Olympic performed a morally educative function standing as role models especially for the athletes who were there to train for the Games of physical moral and intellectual virtue.

“Hercules is shown bearded with beautiful feature...a well trained body,fine,proportioned muscles...as a representative of the kalos kagathos type,where the body is well-formed and harmonious,the expression of a beautiful soul,and the face radiates intelligence,kindness and integrity.”

So,a philosophical anthropology is an idealized conception of the human.If we ask ourselves what the Olympic idea is,it translates into a few simple phrases which capture the essence of what an ideal human being ought to be and to aspire to.From the above we might suggest that the philosophical anthropology of Olympism promotes the ideals of:

Individual all around harmonious human development;

Towards excellence and achievement;

Through effort in competitive sporting activity;

Under conditions of mutual respect,fairness,justice and equality;

With a view to creating lasting personal human relationship of friendship;

International relationships of peace,toleration and understanding;

And cultural alliances with the arts.

That is the general idea-a conception of the human being who is capable of being and doing those things.