Can Cheaters Win the Game? (Essay Sample)

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Can Cheaters Win the Game?
Sports are one of the greatest activities that humanity can engage in, both individually as well as collectively, but as sports history has shown, sports has incorporated cheating and it is becoming evident that now cheating exists in every sports area in some form, which in turn has damaged the sport and in some instances permanently. As cheating has increased over the decades, they are now many forms of sports cheating which include things like game fixing, lying about age to mention but a few but the biggest form of cheating is the use of performance enhancement substances, of which are taken knowingly or unknowingly. Sport like swimming, basketball, track and field, cycling and weightlifting are some of the sports that use enhancement substances. It is now a known fact that sports people will use all means to gain a competitive advantage in order to win games.[Feezell, Randolph. Sports, Play and Ethical Reflection. Bsu. 2006]
This now begs the question can cheaters win games. Firstly, they are several arguments that would revolve around this question. I feel that cheating is dependent on the given situation or circumstance of the sport being played. Feezell asks the question, what is it that makes us think that cheating is wrong? To get a better understanding, let us look at some examples. Feezell goes on to state that from the examples given, we can determine what could be wrong with the arguments presented by the skeptics concerning cheating. In sports, it is interesting to note that most forms of cheating are hardly strategic matters, as skeptics would at times suggest. For instance, a sport requires score keeping hence making the participants to keep scores fairly. Should they fail, then that is considered cheating and is wrong. Examples of this kind of sports include golf, tennis matches, and basketball games. Then if a particular sport has strict eligible requirements for its players in which umpires or referees are required, to not violate the rules, the hiring of the officials must not be biased because if it is, this then creates unfair advantage for a particular team, which would then be a clear form of cheating. Sports that require equipment and are restricted on the type of equipment required by the rules would be considered cheating. For example, usage of a corked bat when playing baseball or substituting illegal apparatuses in field events is considered cheating. That being said, what do these cases of paradigm cheating have in common (Feezell, 2). All cases illustrate intention from the players as well as coaches to gain a form of unfair advantage by altering particular conditions of competitive fairness. Therefore, about judgments pertaining cheating, a decision must be based on central clear rules as well as traditions of the sport that plan certain hidden agreements. As Aristotle cautioned, do not expect mathematical confidence in judging nor despair as well as suppose that strict atmosphere of sport is amorphous where "anything goes.”[Feezell, Randolph. Sports, Play and Ethical Reflection. Bsu. 2006]
Three questions are of relevance when it comes to arguments presented by the skeptics concerning cheating.
1 Question of definition- whether behavior x is considered as cheating.
2 Question of moral – if behavior x is considered cheating then x is wrong.
3 Question of incompatibility – if behavior x is considered cheating, then the person doing x is logically not allowed to play the game.
While Feezell raises some of the issues pertaining cheating, Leaman as well as Lehman have argued credibly that purposely violating written rules is not certainly morally wrong but part of the game and does not require that someone is not playing the game (Feezell, 4). Nevertheless, by including the cheating analysis of a reference to customs concealed agreement s that surround sports in what is called a strict atmosphere of sports, we can then conclude that there has been a lack of illustration that cheating is equated with deliberate violation of written rules. Since cheating involves trying to get an unfair advantage over an opponent by violating agreements fundamental in the game, cheating is then morally impermissible and can never be considered as part of the game, and hence disqualifies the cheater from taking part in competitions and therefore winning. Therefore, we can say that if cheating involves trying to get an unfair advantage, then it is obvious that cheating is morally wrong. The critics present counte...