Category Archives: publications

December 8, 2025 · 3:30 pm

This Week: College Sports Ethics: Challenges, Questions, and Opportunities

I’m excited to announced that the latest in the Studies in Philosophy of Sport is now available for pre-order and will be published on Thursday December 11, 2025

College Sports Ethics Cover

  Pre-Order Today!

College Sports Ethics: Challenges, Questions, and Opportunities edited by Chad Carlson and myself can be pre-ordered from Bloomsbury or from Amazon (sponsored link) and other booksellers.

Chad and I started working on this collection several years ago; our first conversations started back in 2021! We knew the landscape of college sports was changing and that new discussions about ethics in college sports were needed. Of course, there are many books that explore the different scandals that periodically erupt and plague college sports: but we thought what was needed were conversations about the nature of college sports and the relevant ethical principles. What makes college sport different from other sport domains and what ethical challenges and questions are unique to this domain? What opportunities does this unique domain of sport offer?

With that overarching idea in mind, we reached out to philosophers of sport and brought together a set of thinkers we think are perfect to get these conversations going. The table of contents is listed below.

From the back cover:

The first chapters examine college sports at a systematic level, considering the ways we can evaluate college sport as a whole, as well as how we ought to structure college sports in ways that are fairer and better tests of athletic excellence. The second section looks more closely at the interplay of the academic institutions and athletics, arguing that since college sports programs are part of institutions of higher learning, we need to consider the purposes of these institutions when evaluating college sports. Moreover, the well-being and protection of college athletes is central to an ethically defensible college system. The last section of chapters explores several controversial issues in college sports, including gender inequality and transgender participation.

Table of Contents:

Introduction (Chad Carlson, Hope College, USA, and Shawn E. Klein, Arizona State University, USA)

Part 1: The System
1. The Good, the Bad, and the Costly (Pam R. Sailors, Missouri State University, USA)
2. The Ethics of the Level Playing Field (R. Scott Kretchmar, Pennsylvania State University, USA)
3. Tournaments, Tests, and the Aims of Intercollegiate Athletic Competitions (Aaron Harper, West Liberty University, USA)

Part 2: Institutions and Academics
4. Taking College (and) Sport Seriously (Alex Wolf-Root, The Ohio State University, USA)
5. Holding Institutions Responsible for Student-Athlete Well-Being (Peg Brand Weiser, University of Oregon, USA)
6. Duty of Care: Non-traumatic Deaths and DI Collegiate Football (Nancy Kane, State University of New York, Cortland, USA)
7. The Professor as Fan (Adam Kadlac, Wake Forest University, USA)

Part 3: Controversies
8. Gender and Ethics in College Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity as an Underlying Problem (Colleen English, Pennsylvania State University, Berks, USA)
9. Sooner or Later: Changing Team Names and Mascots (Jeremy Fried, Auburn University, USA)
10. Caught in Transition: The Ethical Issues of Trans Athletes in Collegiate Sport (John Gleaves, California State University, Fullerton, USA)
11. Reflections on Muddy Waters, Marijuana, and Moving Goalposts: Against “Returning” Reggie Bush’s Heisman (S. Seth Bordner, University of Alabama, USA)

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August 19, 2025 · 10:50 am

New Book: College Sports Ethics: Challenges, Questions, and Opportunities

I’m excited to announced that the latest in the Studies in Philosophy of Sport is now available for pre-order!

College Sports Ethics Cover

Pre-Order Today!

College Sports Ethics: Challenges, Questions, and Opportunities edited by Chad Carlson and myself is schedule to be published in December 2025. You can pre-order from Bloomsbury or from Amazon (sponsored link) and other booksellers.

Chad and I started working on this collection several years ago; our first conversations started back in 2021! We knew the landscape of college sports was changing and that new discussions about ethics in college sports were needed. Of course, there are many books that explore the different scandals that periodically erupt and plague college sports: but we thought what was needed were conversations about the nature of college sports and the relevant ethical principles. What makes college sport different from other sport domains and what ethical challenges and questions are unique to this domain? What opportunities does this unique domain of sport offer?

With that overarching idea in mind, we reached out to philosophers of sport and brought together a set of thinkers we think are perfect to get these conversations going. The table of contents is listed below.

From the back cover:

The first chapters examine college sports at a systematic level, considering the ways we can evaluate college sport as a whole, as well as how we ought to structure college sports in ways that are fairer and better tests of athletic excellence. The second section looks more closely at the interplay of the academic institutions and athletics, arguing that since college sports programs are part of institutions of higher learning, we need to consider the purposes of these institutions when evaluating college sports. Moreover, the well-being and protection of college athletes is central to an ethically defensible college system. The last section of chapters explores several controversial issues in college sports, including gender inequality and transgender participation.

Table of Contents:

Introduction (Chad Carlson, Hope College, USA, and Shawn E. Klein, Arizona State University, USA)

Part 1: The System
1. The Good, the Bad, and the Costly (Pam R. Sailors, Missouri State University, USA)
2. The Ethics of the Level Playing Field (R. Scott Kretchmar, Pennsylvania State University, USA)
3. Tournaments, Tests, and the Aims of Intercollegiate Athletic Competitions (Aaron Harper, West Liberty University, USA)

Part 2: Institutions and Academics
4. Taking College (and) Sport Seriously (Alex Wolf-Root, The Ohio State University, USA)
5. Holding Institutions Responsible for Student-Athlete Well-Being (Peg Brand Weiser, University of Oregon, USA)
6. Duty of Care: Non-traumatic Deaths and DI Collegiate Football (Nancy Kane, State University of New York, Cortland, USA)
7. The Professor as Fan (Adam Kadlac, Wake Forest University, USA)

Part 3: Controversies
8. Gender and Ethics in College Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity as an Underlying Problem (Colleen English, Pennsylvania State University, Berks, USA)
9. Sooner or Later: Changing Team Names and Mascots (Jeremy Fried, Auburn University, USA)
10. Caught in Transition: The Ethical Issues of Trans Athletes in Collegiate Sport (John Gleaves, California State University, Fullerton, USA)
11. Reflections on Muddy Waters, Marijuana, and Moving Goalposts: Against “Returning” Reggie Bush’s Heisman (S. Seth Bordner, University of Alabama, USA)

 

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January 2, 2025 · 11:54 am

Book Review: An Examined Run

I’m excited to announce the publication of my review of Sabrina Little’s An Examined Run: Why Good People Make Better Runners (Oxford 2024). It will be in the March issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Sport and is available online now.

Here’s an excerpt from the opening:

As a philosopher of sport who takes a broadly neo-Aristotelian, virtue-ethical approach, Sabrina B. Little’s The Examined Run seems tailor-made for me. Little uses Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, and other thinkers in the virtue ethics tradition to shed light on important questions like: What is the nature of the good life? How does sport fit into such a life? As she says in the conclusion: ‘In this book, I placed running in conversation with the classical tradition of inquiry about character and the good life’ (229).

…

It is disappointing, then, that Little (and her editors) have not drawn on this extensive body of literature. There is not a single JPS citation or any philosopher of sport in Little’s references. This is an enormous oversight. Little is an exceptional writer; her style is witty and clear. She effectively explains complex philosophic concepts in ways digestible for non-philosophers without sacrificing the rigor expected by trained philosophers. She uses her personal experience as an elite runner and coach to set the stage and to provide relatable concrete examples. All this in the service of understanding how the application of these ideas about virtue and character could help the readers make themselves better: both better athletes, and more importantly, better people. She is therefore well-positioned to contribute to ongoing conversations of how sports fit into a flourishing human life. But this opportunity is missed.

Although Little’s book has interesting things to say, it doesn’t engage the philosophy of sport scholarship and thus fails to connect with, and critically contribute to, that scholarship. This failing has the expected effects: arguments miss key objections already discussed and developed in the philosophy of sport literature; opportunities to comment on and contribute to issues raised in the literature are missed. Little and the philosophy of sport would have mutually benefited from an engagement with this literature: we both have missed out on the opportunity for a more insightful and richer work. After I briefly summarize Little’s book, I’ll explore a few examples of these missed opportunities.

And the last two sentences:

 I hope Little takes these criticisms as the invitation they are: come and engage with philosophy of sport. I believe her contributions to our field could be exceptional and we would all gain by it.

Read the rest of the review at JPS.

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September 24, 2024 · 11:22 am

Publication: The Puzzle of Sports Fandom

Peter Kung and I are excited to share the news of our recent publication in the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport.
 
Kung, Peter, and Shawn E. Klein. 2024. “The Puzzle of Sports Fandom.” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, September, 1–21. doi:10.1080/00948705.2024.2403354.
 
Here is the article’s abstract:
Why do sports fans sometimes (often?) go crazy at sporting events and then afterwards proceed with their day as if nothing much happened? If something of genuine significance happened, something that warranted the emotional ups and downs the fan experienced during the game, why don’t its effects linger? These questions pose a version of the puzzle of sports fandom. Others have applied Kendall Walton’s theory of fiction to solve the puzzle, but Walton’s account of sports fandom fiction is unacceptably thin. Recent attempts by Nathan Wildman and Joseph Moore to address this thinness problem fail. We answer the thinness objection by explaining how sports fandom is a collaboratively authored fiction, constructed by fans, sponsors, players, teams, media commentators, and more. The stories of sports fandom fiction are passed to new generations of fans in a way more reminiscent of The Iliad or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sports fandom fiction is more like folklore, and less like a novel.
 
This a revisied version of the paper Peter and I presented at the Pacific APA in March and posted on the Junkyard of the Mind blog.

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February 16, 2021 · 1:02 pm

Surfing and the Philosophy of Sport

I’m thrilled to announce the publication of the newest book in the Studies in Philosophy of Sport Book Series.

Surfing and the Philosophy of Sport uses the insights gained through an analysis of the sport of surfing to explore key questions and discourses within the philosophy of sport. As surfing has been practiced dynamically, since its beginnings as a traditional Polynesian pursuit to its current status as a counter-culture lifestyle and also a highly professionalized and commercialized sport that will be included in the Olympic Games, it presents a unique phenomenon from which to reconsider questions about the nature of sport and its role in a flourishing life and society. Daniel Brennan examines foundational issues about defining sport, sport’s role in conceptualizing the good life, the aesthetic nature of sport, the place of technology in sport, the principles of Olympism and surfing’s embodiment of them, and issues of institutionalized sexism in sport and the effect that might have on athletic performance.

Table of Contents:

  • Chapter 1: Surfing and Sport
  • Chapter 2: Waves and Wipeouts in Utopia
  • Chapter 3: Drawing Lines on Waves; surfing and the aesthetics of sport
  • Chapter 4: Making Waves: Surfing and Technology
  • Chapter 5: Surfing’s Olympian Moment
  • Chapter 6: Surfing like a Girl: Sexism in Surf Culture and Feminine Motility

Available now at Amazon, Lexington, and other book sellers.

Studies in Philosophy of Sport Book Series

Series Editor: Shawn E. Klein, Ph.D. (sklein@asu.edu // sportsethicist@gmail.com )

The Studies in Philosophy of Sport series from Lexington Books encourages scholars from all disciplines to inquire into the nature, importance, and qualities of sport and related activities. The series aims to encourage new voices and methods for the philosophic study of sport while also inspiring established scholars to consider new questions and approaches in this field.

More on the series.

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July 16, 2018 · 11:22 am

New Publication: The Value of Play and The Good Human Life

Along with several philosophy of sport colleagues, I have an article in a recently published special issue of Cultura_Ciencia_Deporte (Vol 13, No. 38). The issues explores philosophical theories of play, sport, and games.

My article focuses on the value of play and argues that play, like virtue and friendship, is an important part of the good human life.

The Value of Play and The Good Human Life by Shawn E. Klein

Abstract:

The dominant conception of play in philosophy of sport is that it is autotelic. This conception is the subject of important criticisms by Stephen Schmid and others. With these criticisms in mind, my paper seeks to move the discussion of play beyond the apparent dichotomy of autotelicity and instrumentality. Drawing a parallel to the role virtue and friendship have in a broadly construed (neo-)Aristotelian ethic, I argue that play is an important part of the good human life. Like virtue and friendship, play is chosen both for the sake of its importance to the good life and for its own sake. It is partly constitutive of the good life and thus chosen as part of and for the sake of the good life. At the same time, however, play is chosen for its own sake: for what it is distinct from any further ends it might bring about. Thus, play is not autotelic, but nor is it instrumental. Play should be considered, therefore, a constituent value of the good human life.

 

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August 1, 2017 · 9:57 am

Publication: “An Argument against Athletes as Political Role Models”

I’m excited to announce the publication of my article, “An Argument against Athletes as Political Role Models” in the latest issue of FairPlay, Journal of Philosophy, Ethics and Sports Law. 

Article abstract:

A common refrain in and outside academia is that prominent sports figures ought to engage more in the public discourse about political issues. This idea parallels the idea that athletes ought to be role models in general. This paper first examines and critiques the “athlete as role model” argument and then applies this critique to the “athlete as political activist” argument. Appealing to the empirical political psychological literature, the paper sketches an argument that athlete activism might actually do more harm than good.

This was part of a special issue on Colin Kaepernick. My article doesn’t really focus on Kaepernick that much–he’s more of a jumping off point for the argument I want to focus on. The other articles in the issue look much more closely on the case of Kaepernick. It’s fair to say, my take is not the consensus view.

You can download and read the article (PDF): An Argument against Athletes as Political Role Models

Full Citation: Shawn E. Klein (2017): An Argument against Athletes as Political Role Models, Fair Play. Revista de Filosofía, Ética y Derecho del Deporte, vol. 10.

An earlier version of this paper was originally presented at Penn State’s Center for the Study of Sports in Society’s Sports Ethics Conference.

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