Abstract

Sport exerts such broad and deep influence on human beings that it is comparable with religion and science. Sport is not limited to physical acts in a physiological sense. It is rather related to the human spirit. Compared with this breadth and depth of sport, very little has been said on the thought connected with sport. It is as if popularization and intensification have been left to run rampant. In this paper, we would link sport with the human spirit and discuss it from the perspective of its role in the modern world. Aiming at sustainable societies in terms of energy and the environment through our own individual efforts is one of the major challenges we face today. At the same time, we would like to highlight the challenge we face of realizing societies that allow the sustainability and continued existence of achieved joy and cooperation with others. In relation to this challenge, we believe that the thought on sport will help in shaping our futures. Sport has functioned in a way that inspires independent actions in humans, and it will no doubt continue to do so. When doing so, we need suggestions for the types of thought that will give meaning to everyone’s sporting acts, from top-level athletes to ordinary people of all ages, and that will counter the type of external threats about which Karl Jaspers and Johan Huizinga were apprehensive. We believe that the possibility for a philosophy of sport lies in completely overcoming the etymological sense of ‘recreation.’