Dr.Sc.Philos, Professor A.I. Timofeyev
PhD, Professor V.V. Kuznetsova
PhD, Associate Professor A.I. Peshkov
¹Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg
²St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, St. Petersburg
³Bonch-Bruevich Saint Petersburg State University of Telecommunications, St. Petersburg

Keywords: extreme sports, sense, value, individual integrity, freedom, emotional experience.

Background. Today in the national sport science special attention is being given to extreme sports, with both their theoretical and practical aspects being explored. Theoretical issues under the study refer to psycho-physiology of extreme sports [2], their classifications [1], extremity rating criteria applicable in these sport disciplines [6] and many others. An attempt was made to offer a general philosophic and anthropological model for spontaneous extreme sporting activity [5]. From the practical standpoint, high priority in the studies shall be given to primary empirical data and process descriptions in view of the fact that the modern extreme sports are generated by spontaneous creative individual initiatives.

Objective of the article was to make an attempt to interpret values and senses of the modern extreme sports from the viewpoint of philosophic anthropology.

Study results and discussion. Sense is referred to herein as the reasonable basis for some activity commonly accepted in the general context of modern human existence; while values are referred to as the motivational component of every human behavioural model. The semantic aspect of human existence is commonly considered as its key determinant, and this is the reason why the attempted explanations of the driving force for the extreme sporting activities are often limited to metaphors like ‘they want to get on nerves’ or ‘they force adrenalin out’ etc. It is true that modern extreme sports are often driven by hormones, but due attention shall be also given to the physical and spiritual domains of the human nature. Hormonal reasoning and analyses shall not overshadow semantic analyses since animals, for example, may be driven by hormones but never by senses and, therefore, these two analytical domains need to be considered as supportive rather than opposing in application to humans. It is also important that individual senses of every human are closely connected with sentiments and the latter are influential in their turn on the hormonal background.

It is not always easy to understand people prone to extreme sports since they appear to take unreasonable risks for their health and even life and waste their money in vain – often at detriment for their money-making businesses etc. These behavioural models can unlikely be explained in terms of common sense i.e. reasonable and commonly accepted models of reality and motivations – that are very limited and constraining in fact. Everyday logics cannot be easily found in and applied to the modern extreme sports albeit extreme sport activists find lots of senses in them i.e. certain individually valuable reasons.

It might well be that the modern technologically-centred civilization gives a feel of constant progress but some of us feel as if they have run into losses on the way, and something important is left behind, and at some point strive to go back to their genuine self [3]. It is the spontaneous extreme actions that give them the feel of their individual integrity of senses and values being restored. To put it in other words, extreme sports give them the means to consolidate their own selves. Facing problems of spiritual integrity in the cognitive identification domain, they attain individual integration via personal emotional experience associated with contemplation of the internal individual integrity.

It should be noted that it is very traditional for our modern rational culture to consider correlations of emotional experiences and senses mostly in terms of semantic control of mental conditions, with the cognitive sense being understood as a cause and the mental conditions as an effect. We believe that it might hold true for an opposite action. Such feelings as emotions and contemplations, being joined and integrated, may facilitate integration of senses as well. It may be stated with confidence that emotions, senses and contemplations really integrate, with the genuine integral sense appearing only when a certain individual sense is supported by the feel of complete and perfect integration with universality or some other form of eternity.

This feel of individual integration may be attained in some special forms of activity including modern extreme sports. It may be pertinent to mention in this context the A.O. Prokhorov’s idea of senses and activities being connected by an implicative link: “In contrast to the knowledge and skills domain, semantic structures are not always controllable by direct arbitrary control tools. It is the inclusion of semantic structures in the activity that gives rise to them and the uncontrollability of these structures by direct arbitrary control tools that may be referred to as their core quality. They are cardinally different from the structures that already exist on the surface of consciousness... being directly changeable by verbal actions in the sense that transformations of semantic structures are always driven by transformations of individual activities” [4].

Therefore, it is via the hard and internally integral extreme activity that the individual may newly attain something that was once taken away from him/her by the technology-centred civilization and thereby consolidate his/her own self. Facing problems of internal spiritual integrity being attained in the cognitive identification domain, the individual comes to integration via the extreme emotional experience associated with contemplation.

Such sense-structuring activity results in a certain values system being created and appreciated by the relevant group of people; moreover, this system determines both their behavioural imperatives and even their models of reality is some cases. It should be noted in this context that extreme sports activists tend to develop their own subcultures often expressly opposed to the traditional everyday life models and values on the whole and values of traditional sports in particular. There are enough reasons to speak about extreme subcultures identifiable by the relevant sets of descriptors and factors forming fairly stable arrays of system-identifying criteria. These subcultures are united by the joint activity often bearing its name, more or less structured and developed values system, gravitas, behavioural models, special terminology or slang language, and even some aesthetic preferences developed by the relevant folk culture.

As has been mentioned before, the growing popularity of the modern extreme sports is explainable by the one-sidedness of the modern technology-centred civilization that gives a top priority to production and efficiency turning a human into one more machine among others and a thing among other things designed for mass and totally impersonal production and consumption.

Priority values of the extreme sporting culture appear to be totally opposite to the values of consumer society in fact albeit it cannot be interpreted as fully protestant for the reason that it is not focused on some social or political goals. It can rather be viewed as an alternative-prioritising culture geared to furnish a human with opportunity to explore other senses of individual life totally different from the traditional senses of consumer civilization.

This subculture is not subjective or proprietary in the sense that values of things are neither essential nor basic for it; although it is still clear that neither culture can do without a material foundation. The difference is that ownership of things is not central in this subculture since things are viewed only as instrumental for the self-fulfilment process and as such are often manufactured and improved by the extreme sports activists on their own. Most valuable for this subculture is the specific extreme emotional experience that makes it possible to perceive and step up own individual values and, hence, develop the feel of conciseness of own lifestyle.

Furthermore, the values system of this subculture implies a specific group environment being created for the actions. It may be either natural (atmosphere, mountains, highland rivers etc.) or manmade (for example, dirt tracks for the extreme biking sport). This specific group environment may be described as one of the tools for both group self-identification and isolation from other groups that ‘hold’ their own places – apart of its key service mission of hosting extreme sporting activity. Such a group environment is often clearly marked by certain borderlines to sever it from the traditional world and everyday reality and turn it into a universe for the extreme sporting experience.

It should be mentioned that most of modern extreme spontaneous activities are more often than not semi-sporting in their design in fact; and at the same time expressly different from the relevant traditional sport disciplines – mostly for the reason that the extreme sport activists are driven by emotional gains rather than quantifiable scores. It does not mean that they are totally free of a competitive spirit albeit it is virtually never in top priority.

It may be stated with confidence that many people go for modern extreme sports with their fans subcultures for the only reason that they are less regulated and, hence, give much more personal freedom to the adherents. Moreover, extreme sports are normally free of professional coaches, instructors, schedules and strict training systems on the one hand; and also free of the Damocles’ sword of the expected competitive accomplishments on the other hand. Every individual is free to decide when and how he/she shall be trained and how intensive the trainings must be. This is the reason why the extreme sports activists are so sensitive to every attempt to systematise or manage their group sporting activity. They may at most accept some kind of advisory service albeit it is perfectly clear that no group activity can be successful enough unless somehow coordinated, and it is the informal group leaders who normally provide this coordination service. It may be pertinent to emphasise that the modern extreme sporting activities may be considered a good alternative to many bad habits including alcohol and drug addictions, conditional on this alternative being utilised in a prudent manner.

Conclusion. Modern extreme sports are fraught with certain social costs that cannot be avoided at this juncture. Extreme sports are getting increasingly popular and have evolved into a sort of social phenomenon to be reckoned with; therefore, efforts need to be taken to establish an effective cooperation starting from at least an attempt to understand them.

References

1. Baykovskiy Y.V. Kontseptsiya klassifikatsii vidov sporta i vidov deyatelnosti po stepeni ekstremalnosti [The concept of classification of sports and activity types by degree of extremism]. Tez. dokl. III mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. “Ekstremalnaya deyatelnost cheloveka, problemy i perspektivy podgotovki spetsialistov” [Proc. III Intern. res.-pract. conf. “Extreme human activities, problems and prospects for expert training”]. Moscow: Vertikal publ., 2007.
2. Bleer A.N., Rodionov A.R., Sopov V.F. Ekstremalnaya deyatelnost Osnovy psikhofiziologii ekstremalnoy deyatelnosti [Extreme activity. Basics of psychophysiology of extreme activity]. Moscow, 2006, P. 7.
3. Virtz U., Zobeli J. Zhazhda smysla: Chelovek v ekstremalnykh situatsiyakh: Predely psikhoterapii [The thirst for meaning: A man in extreme situations: Limits of psychotherapy]. Moscow: Kogito-Tsentr publ., 2012, 328 p.
4. Prokhorov A.O. Smyslovaya regulyatsiya psikhicheskikh sostoyaniy [Semantic regulation of mental states]. Moscow: Institute of Psychology, RAS publ., 2009, P. 26.
5. Timofeyev A.I., Kuznetsova V.V. Dusha ekstremala i mir ekstrima (Filosofsko-antropologicheskie aspekty spontannoy ekstremalnoy deyatelnosti) [Soul of thrill-seeker and extreme world (Philosophical and anthropological aspects of spontaneous extreme actions)]. St. Petersburg: RHGA publ., 2014, 261 p.
6. Timofeyev A.I., Kuznetsova V.V. Ekstremalny sport: problema kriteriev [Extreme sports: the problem of criteria]. Uchenye zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2015, no. 7 (125), pp. 220-224.

Corresponding author: ap2000@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the article was to make an attempt to interpret values and senses of modern extreme sports from the viewpoint of philosophic anthropology. We consider spontaneous extreme sporting actions as one of the ways to restore the individual meaning and integrity. Modern technocratic civilization often makes an individual increasingly perceive his/her own life as senseless; and it is via an internal purposeful extreme action that a person may come again to the once lost integrity, i.e. obtain the chance to rebuild his/her own identity. Since the internal personality fails to restore its integrity in the cognitive domain, it comes to integration in the contemplative and emotional experience domain. It should be noted that the modern extreme sports are fraught with certain social costs and one cannot do without them at this juncture. Extreme sports are getting increasingly popular and have evolved into a sort of social phenomenon to be reckoned with; therefore, efforts need to be taken to establish effective cooperation starting from at least an attempt to understand them.