“Commentary on Twietmeyer’s ‘the plastic person: A response to fry’”

Abstract

In his response to a book chapter that I wrote for Robert Simon’s anthology entitled The Ethics of Coaching Sports: Moral, Social, and Legal Issues (2013), Gregg Twietmeyer presents a number a criticisms. Underlying his concerns is his view that the brain should not be mistaken for the person. Hence, the notion of a neuroethics of coaching is misfocused. The brain is a feature of the person, but not the person as such. Coaches should have the whole person in focus. In my response, I raise some questions about Twietmeyer’s own views, and I defend, on ethical grounds, a particular concern of coaches for the brains of athletes.