The birth of sports from the spirit of agonal eccentricity

Abstract

In this paper, we reconstruct the anthropological genesis of the historical assumptions of sport. As a "flawed creature", or as one whose being is determined by the structure of "eccentricity", one has a need for self-overcoming, which manifests itself also as a competition with others, among other things, in physical and playing abilities. Thus another man, in sports as an opponent, represents an "agent" who mediates the processes of self-cognizing and self-fulfillment. For this to be possible, there must be an a priori precondition for competition in humans, which we have named as the conceptual construct of proto-sport.