Look no further than the comment section of this post/video and you’ll find knee-jerk answers to the question posed in this title driven by emotional reactions, that are justified after the fact by a poorly thought-out argument that is logically inconsistent. In the philosophy of sport, however, you go the opposite direction. You put forth a logically consistent case, based on established information, within the constraints of the argument. In this episode we chat with philosophy Ph.D. candidate at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain Adrian Kind, who recently collaborated on the article: “Is Bodybuilding a Sport?” with Eric. It is currently in peer review, but available as a pre-print for all to read. This philosophy of sport article by Kind and Helms is a rebuttal to another philosophy of sport article by Aranyosi (2018), where Aranyosi claims competitive Bodybuilding is not a sport, but rather an artistic presentation with sport-like elements. While Adrian and Eric didn’t prove Bodybuilding is a sport in their paper, they refuted the argument as presented. Tune in to learn about the specifics of this debate, and how a conversation typically reserved for Reddit plays out in academia, and why philosophy is actually at the root of all science.

00:00 Intro to the one (another monster episode) … and introducing Adrian

Aranyosi 2017 Body, skill, and look: is bodybuilding a sport? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-017-9513-3

Kind & Helms 2023 Is Bodybuilding a Sport? https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/270/539 

10:44 Discussing the Aranyosi paper: what makes an “activity”, a sport?

26:25 The rebuttal to the takes on posing

41:55 The physical skill component of bodybuilding

1:01:13 The Art vs. Sport spectrum argument

Iron Culture Ep. 84- The Original Iron Sport: Gymnastics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_n5AiQvLzQ

1:24:00 Conceding that the physical skill involved in bodybuilding is displaying the body

1:33:40 Why is the categorisation of bodybuilding as a sport perceived as contemptuous?

1:49:03 Do you even lift? Future topics to discuss and closing out

Iron Culture Ep. 19- The Science of Hypertrophy (Roundtable) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1LDc7_Hrc