Ambassadors of the game: do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously?

Do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously? A number of philosophers have investigated this question by examining whether famous athletes are subject to special role model obligations (Wellman 2003; Feezel 2005; Spurgin 2012). In this paper we will take a different approach and give a positive response to this question by arguing for the position that sport and gaming celebrities are ‘ambassadors of the game’: moral agents whose vocations as rule-followers have unique implications for their non-lusory lives. According to this idea, the actions of a game’s players and other stakeholders—especially the actions of its stars—directly affect the value of the game itself, a fact which generates additional moral reasons to behave in a virtuous manner. We will begin by explaining the three main positions one may take with respect to the question: moral exceptionalism, moral generalism, and moral exemplarism. We will argue that no convincing case for moral exemplarism has thus far been made, which gives us reason to look for new ways to defend this position. We then provide our own ‘ambassadors of the game’ account and argue that it gives us good reason to think that sport and game celebrities are subject to special obligations to act virtuously

Moral Actions vs. Virtuous Characters: Hursthouse's Virtue Ethics and the Problem of Personal Transformation

The central argument of this article is that the standard conception of character given in virtue theory, as exemplified in the work of Rosalind Hursthouse, is seriously flawed. Partially, this is because looking behind a moral action for a ‘character’ is suspiciously akin to looking behind an object for an ‘essence’, and is susceptible to the same interpretive errors as an epistemic strategy. Alternately, a character—once inducted and projected upon a moral agent—is supposed to be a more or less permanent property of that individual; a schema which leaves little room for the real possibility of personal transformation. I argue here that what is often referred to in virtue literature as ‘character’ can be productively re-described as the aggregate of all moral actions performed by any one moral agent: nothing more, and nothing less. My hope is that this interpretive strategy will result in broader and more coherent readings of moral actions, and thus also clarify moral confusion resulting from the current lack of the same

The Normative Role of Utopianism in Political Philosophy

The thesis of this paper is that utopianism is a theoretical necessity—we couldn’t, for example, engage in normative political philosophy without it—and, further, that in consciously embracing utopianism we will consequently experience an enrichment of our political lives. Thus, the title of my paper has a double meaning: it highlights the fact that utopianism always plays a normative role in political philosophy, as its concern is inevitably the promotion of a certain vision of the good life; and secondly it suggests that there normatively ‘ought to be’ a recognized and respectable role for utopianism within political philosophy. The first meaning, I believe, is self-explanatory. Regarding the second, it expresses my hope to— in short— take what is old, and through a modest process of rehabilitation, make it new again

Utopia, Myth, and Narrative

One of the most historically recent and damaging blows to the reputation of utopianism came from its association with the totalitarian regimes of Hitler’s Third Reich and Mussolini’s Fascist party in World War II and the prewar era. Being an apologist for utopianism, it seemed to some, was tantamount to being an apologist for Nazism and all of its concomitant horrors. The fantasy principle of utopia was viewed as irretrievably bound up with the irrationalism of modern dictatorship. While these conclusions are somewhat understandable given the broad strokes that definitions of utopia are typically painted with, I will show in this paper that the link between the mythos of fascism and the constructs of utopianism results from an unfortunate conflation at the theoretical level. The irrationalism of any mass ethos and the rationalism of the thoughtful utopian planner are, indeed, completely at odds with each other. I arrive at this conclusion via an analysis of the concepts of myth and narrative, and the relationships these have with the concept of utopia

The Mystic and the Ineffable

Mysticism and the sciences have traditionally been theoretical enemies, and the closer that philosophy allies itself with the sciences, the greater the philosophical tendency has been to attack mysticism as a possible avenue towards the acquisition of knowledge and/or understanding. Science and modern philosophy generally aim for epistemic disclosure of their contents, and, conversely, mysticism either aims at the restriction of esoteric knowledge, or claims such knowledge to be non-transferable. Thus the mystic is typically seen by analytic philosophers as a variety of 'private language' speaker, although the plausibility of such a position is seemingly foreclosed by Wittgenstein's work in the Philosophical Investigations. Yorke re-examines Wittgenstein's conclusion on the matter of private language, and argues that so-called 'ineffable' mystical experiences, far from being a 'beetle in a box', can play a viable role in our public language-games, via renewed efforts at articulation

On the Role of Massive Stars in the Support and Destruction of Giant Molecular Clouds

We argue that massive stars are the dominant sources of energy for the turbulent motions within giant molecular clouds, and that the primary agent of feedback is the expansion of H II regions within the cloud volume. This conclusion is suggested by the low efficiency of star formation and corroborated by dynamical models of H II regions. We evaluate the turbulent energy input rate in clouds more massive than one third of a million solar masses, for which gravity does not significantly affect the expansion of H II regions. Such clouds achieve a balance between the decay of turbulent energy and its regeneration in H II regions; summed over clouds, the implied ionizing luminosity and star formation rate are roughly consistent with the Galactic total. H II regions also photoevaporate their clouds: we derive cloud destruction times somewhat shorter than those estimated by Williams and McKee. The upper mass limit for molecular clouds in the Milky Way may derive from the fact that larger clouds would destroy themselves in less than one crossing time. The conditions within starburst galaxies do not permit giant molecular clouds to be supported or destroyed by H II regions. This should lead to rapid cloud collapse and the efficient formation of massive star clusters, explaining some aspects of the starburst phenomenon.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures; ApJ, in press. Minor comment added on prior wor

Theory of Star Formation

We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which turbulence plays a dual role, both creating overdensities to initiate gravitational contraction or collapse, and countering the effects of gravity in these overdense regions. The key dynamical processes involved in star formation -- turbulence, magnetic fields, and self-gravity -- are highly nonlinear and multidimensional. Physical arguments are used to identify and explain the features and scalings involved in star formation, and results from numerical simulations are used to quantify these effects. We divide star formation into large-scale and small-scale regimes and review each in turn. Large scales range from galaxies to giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their substructures. Important problems include how GMCs form and evolve, what determines the star formation rate (SFR), and what determines the initial mass function (IMF). Small scales range from dense cores to the protostellar systems they beget. We discuss formation of both low- and high-mass stars, including ongoing accretion. The development of winds and outflows is increasingly well understood, as are the mechanisms governing angular momentum transport in disks. Although outstanding questions remain, the framework is now in place to build a comprehensive theory of star formation that will be tested by the next generation of telescopes.Comment: 120 pages, to appear in ARAA. No changes from v1 text; permission statement adde

The interaction of young massive stars with their environment: A millimeter and submillimeter line study of NGC6334 FIR II

Using the 15-m Swedish ESO Sub-millimeter Telescope (SEST), CO, HCN, and HCO+ observations of the galactic star-forming region NGC6334 FIR II are presented, complemented by [C I] 3^P_1--3^P_0 and 3^P_2--3^P_1 data from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX 12-m telescope). Embedded in the extended molecular cloud and associated with the H II region NGC6334--D, there is a molecular "void". [C I] correlates well with 13^CO and other molecular lines and shows no rim brightening relative to molecular cloud regions farther off the void. While an interpretation in terms of a highly clumped cloud morphology is possible, with photon dominated regions (PDRs) reaching deep into the cloud, the data do not provide any direct evidence for a close association of [C I] with PDRs. Kinetic temperatures are ~40--50K in the molecular cloud and >=200K toward the void. CO and [C I] excitation temperatures are similar. A comparison of molecular and atomic fine structure line emission with the far infrared and radio continuum as well as the distribution of 2.2um H_2 emission indicates that the well-evolved H II region expands into a medium that is homogeneous on pc-scales. If the H_2 emission is predominantly shock excited, both the expanding ionization front (classified as subsonic, "D-type") and the associated shock front farther out (traced by H_2) can be identified, observationally confirming for the first time a classical scenario that is predicted by evolutionary models of H II regions. Integrated line intensity ratios of the observed molecules are determined, implying a mean C18^O/C17^O abundance ratio of 4.13+-0.13 that reflects the 18^O/17^O isotope ratio. This ratio is consistent with values determined in nearby clouds. Right at the edge of the void, however, the oxygen isotope ratio might be smaller.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, A&A in pres

[Book Review] Playing games: an introduction to the philosophy of sport through dialogue, by Randolph Feezell

Review of "Playing games: an introduction to the philosophy of sport through dialogue", by Randolph Feezell, New York, Routledge, 2017, 204 pp., $60 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-138-91727-