Jane Addams and William James on Sport and Recreation

Abstract This chapter contrasts Jane Addams’s analysis of the social significance of recreation and sport with William James’s examination of sport and physical activity to bring out the value of their accounts for philosophy of sport. Synthesizing Addams’s writings on recreation and practice of sports at Hull House with James’s essays “The Gospel of Relaxation” and “The Energies of Men,” this contribution argues that Addams’s theory and practice of recreation provide an important corrective to James’s assessment of the moral and psychological value of physical activity. In particular, it argues that Addams’s emphasis on the social goods of sport and her concern about the lack of sporting opportunities for young women illuminate the limitations of James’s advocacy of an individually focused relaxation via sport as the cure for what ails contemporary Americans. The chapter also demonstrates the different values that Addams and James allot to sport. Although both appear to speak positively of sport, its value for James is merely to eliminate a negative form of energy, whereas its value for Addams is to build positive interpersonal connections and communities.