Paul Gaffney

This remarkable little book starts with the premise that things often stand for something else, and proceeds to explore the metaphysical implications of this seemingly benign remark. A familiar instance is the subject matter of semiotics; however, as Paul Weiss discovers, not only do words have the capacity to signify something other than themselves, but also, and more interestingly, every aspect of Being, as well as Being itself, can play a surrogative role with respect to other aspects of Being. The conviction that animates this study is that systematic metaphysics can be usefully explored by approaching its subject matter mediately; that is, sometimes we better understand “A” through “not-A.” The book continues the project begun with Emphatics, which considers how ordinary experience stands in some dynamic relationship with a second dimension, which provides focus, interruption, significance, or grounds for the first. Surrogates is an ambitious, interesting, and challenging work, in many ways a representative final publication from a thinker whose astonishing energies and achievement spanned more than a full century of life and nearly seventy-five years of singular devotion to the labor of philosophy.

The domain of sport provides opportunity for development and growth, which is often incremental but can be marked by significant breakthroughs. Using Aristotle’s virtue ethic as a model, this paper explores the challenge of overcoming new obstacles, sometimes reversing bad habits, in the athletic domain. Breakthrough victories in sport are achievements that both reward persistent effort and open new horizons in the pursuit of excellence. They are significant because they seem to hold out a promise for future performance, now that some barrier has been passed. Breakthrough victories are often among the most important and rewarding moments in an athletic career.

Teamwork in sport presents a variety of special challenges and satisfactions. It requires an integration of talents and contributions from individual team members, which is a practical achievement, and it represents a shared pursuit, which is a moral achievement. In its best instances team sport allows members to transform individual interests into a common interest, and in the process discover of part of their own identities. Teamwork is made intelligible by the collective pursuit of victory, but moral requirements importantly condition that activity. To some extent, the dynamic of team sport instantiates a basic experience of human sociality.

Teamwork in sport presents a variety of special challenges and satisfactions. It requires an integration of talents and contributions from individual team members, which is a practical achievement, and it represents a shared pursuit, which is a moral achievement. In its best instances team sport allows members to transform individual interests into a common interest, and in the process discover of part of their own identities. Teamwork is made intelligible by the collective pursuit of victory, but moral requirements importantly condition that activity. To some extent, the dynamic of team sport instantiates a basic experience of human sociality