2016, Volume 8, Issue 1
Natural law and acts of extreme climbers – agonists of the mountain stadium
Andrzej Pawłucki1
1Katedra Dydaktyki Wychowania Fizycznego, Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego
Author for correspondence: Andrzej Pawłucki; Katedra Dydaktyki Wychowania Fizycznego, Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego; email: rozprawynaukowe[at]awf.wroc.pl
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Abstract
The paper gives moral evaluation of feats done by extreme athletes who participate voluntarily in life-threatening stunts or races. The evaluation of the rightness of such extreme feats was based on the first principles of natural law. The law of nature obliges everybody to preserve their lives and forbids acts against one’s own life (do not kill yourself). Extreme athletes differ from others in terms of the attitude to the ontological structure of existence: from negation and mockery of life in the case of nihilists to a praise of life in the case of athletes and goes even further in the case of Olympic athletes who embrace the pro-life civilization through their participation in the peace utopia. In this paper, the author justified the sporting premise for mountaineers to do extreme climbing. In the conclusion, the author admits that extreme feats of mountaineers is justified because these athletes, like Olympic ones, follow sports ethics and at the same time the moral value of existence. Although they consciously risk their lives, when they actually face death they do not give up and fight heroically to survive. This attitude is sufficient to evaluate the mountaineer’s performance which is on the verge of death as morally right.
Key words: natural law, morality, extreme sport, Himalayan mountaineering