ABSTRACT

Meritocracy, in which success depends on ability and effort, is a desirable goal for sport, even if sport does not achieve this goal perfectly. However, even in a meritocracy whether athletes deserve praise is questionable, given that a determinant of success, genetic endowments, is beyond their control. From a hard determinist perspective, even the elements of athletes’ actions that appear to be within their control—their diligence in developing their skill and strategy and their good sportsmanship—are themselves a function of other environmental and genetic factors for which they deserve no credit. However, a more plausible approach is the compatibilist view that enables us to combine moral evaluation of athletes’ actions with recognizing the causal influences on human behavior. In contrast with manipulation, which really does negate control over our actions, causation that operates via our rational agency is benign and perfectly consistent with our deserving praise for our achievements.

摘要

精英制的成功取决于能力和努力，是体育的理想目标，即使体育不能完美地实现这一目标。然而，即使在精英制度下，运动员是否值得表扬也是值得怀疑的，因为决定成功的一个因素是遗传天赋，这是他们无法控制的。从硬性决定论的角度来看，即使运动员行动中看似在他们控制范围内的要素——他们努力发展自己的技能和策略以及良好的体育精神——本身也是其他环境和遗传因素的函数，他们不值得称赞. 然而，一种更合理的方法是相容论观点，它使我们能够将运动员行为的道德评价与认识到对人类行为的因果影响相结合。与操纵相反，