Knowing the Score

How philosophy can illuminate sport and what sport can tell us about philosophy...

Why do sports competitors choke? How can Roger Federer select which shot to play in 400 milliseconds? Should foreign-born footballers be eligible to play for England? Why do opposing professional cyclists help each other? Why do American and European golfers hate each other? Why does test cricket run in families? Why is punching tolerated in rugby but not in soccer?

These may not look like philosophical questions, but David Papineau shows that under the surface they all raise long-standing philosophical issues. To get to the bottom of these and other sporting puzzles, we need help from metaphysics or ethics, or from the philosophy of mind or political philosophy, as well as numerous other philosophical disciplines.

Knowing The Score will be an entertaining, fact-filled and erudite book that ranges far and wide through the sporting world. As a prominent philosopher who is also an enthusiastic amateur sportsman and omnivorous sports fan, David Papineau is uniquely well-placed to show how philosophy can illuminate sporting issues. By bringing his philosophical expertise to bear, he will add a new dimension to the way we think about sport.

About the Author

David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy of Natural Science at King's College London and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. He is the author of eight philosophical books, and has served as president of the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association, and the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.

He is also a keen amateur sportsman, and has competed as an adult at cricket, soccer, rugby, squash, field hockey, tennis, golf and sailing, without noteworthy success in any. He spends as much time as he can on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, where he and his family have a house and a number of small boats.