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The Society for the Study of Philosophy and the Martial Arts is seeking abstracts for papers to be given at our next meeting on the Group Program of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association to be held in Seattle, April 4-7 2012.   Topics on any philosophical inquiry related to the martial arts are welcome.   Past topics include Nonviolence and Martial Arts, Women and Self Defense, the Concept of Ki, Martial Virtue, What Is a Martial Art, and many more.   Please send abstracts, inquiries about the Society to Joseph Lynch

For those of you in the UK who can access BBC iplayer, there is a really interesting programme on sex ('gender') tests in sport. Definitely worth a listen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0132l7q/The_Sex_Test/

Readers might be interested in this opinion piece from the BBC on professionalism in sport: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14462759

The 2012 APA Central Division meeting will be held at the Palmer House Hilton hotel, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, February 15 to Saturday, February 18, 2012. If you would like to present a paper at a session sponsored by IAPS, email an abstract of 250 words or less to Mike Austin, mike.austinatsymbol.eku.edu. Deadline for Abstracts: September 15, 2011.

The problem with ethics is that there is always a gap between what is the case (according to evidence) and what ought to be done about it. As such, readers might be interested in a news story about former NFL player Dave Duerson who requested his brain be left for medical analysis in his suicide note. If it can be substantially evidenced that certain sports have a high likelihood of significant brain damage, then does it mean that such sports should be banned or drastically altered to reduce this likelihood? Equally interesting, former Olympic Gold medalist James Cracknell has made a video about the importance of wearing cycling helmets after he suffered brain injury whilst cycling in Arizona. In it, he states that he is no longer James Cracknell as the accident altered his personality but implies that despite this is, this new existence is still preferable to death. Some obvious philosophical questions arise here about identity: if James Cracknell says he is no longer James Cracknel...

Here is a link for a new blog, "The Least Thing," which is run by Roger Pielke, Jr., a well known political scientist at Colorado. "A blog about the study of sport in society," as Pielke describes it, and I'm sure it may be of interest to some of the folks here.

I've been thinking some lately about the practice of shaking an opponent's hand after a game, and wondering whether--as Randolph Feezell and Craig Clifford put it in Sport and Character --"...at the end of the game, should we always, without exception, attempt to shake the hands of our opponents (p. 36)?" My intuition is to say that there can be morally justified exceptions to this practice. For example, as a player I would think it would be justified to refrain from this practice if an opponent has clearly intentionally injured one of my teammates. Or if an opponent consistently displays deep disrespect for the game, officials, and her opponents, is there something disingenuous about shaking her hand after the game? Or take a case that is less clear, but one that I've been thinking about lately for personal reasons. As a coach in youth sports, am I obligated to shake the hand of my opposing coach if he or she spends the entire game berating their own players, cri...