Speaker
Description
When action sports participants are asked to justify risk taking, they often legitimize their actions by referring to some kind of “intrinsic” motivation. The motivation for risk-taking is explained as a burning inner drive to “live life to the fullest” and the athletes often express that they do what they do purely for their own sake. These athletes often express an ideology of individualism, transcendence, and boundary-pushing. But where do these ideas come from? In this paper I explore the historical roots of this “weltanschauung”. I will argue that the world view in action sports can, at least partly, be traced to vitalist and neo-vitalist philosophy.
Vitalist philosophy seeks to oppose mechanistic thinking. Actions are not seen as a response to external, causal influences, but are understood through the principle of self-organization. From Spinoza and Nietzsche to Weber and Heidegger and to Neo-vitalists as Deleuze and Guattari, ideas of the self-organization principle has been expressed in different ways. My argument in this paper is that these ideas have entered society as part of a late modern ideology that is often highlighted within action sports, and that are used to explain risk taking behavior from both athletes themselves and researchers. Finally, I will argue that the vitalist thoughts do not suffice to explain risk-taking behavior since it (at least to some extent) omits the social logic of actions.
