Warren .P. Fraleigh's Relationships Between Purpose and Other Purpose-related Terms - Essay Example

The first term related to purpose, is motive and the difficulty of equating the two terms. Motivation is explained on the backdrop of an individual making the decision to participate in a sporting activity against other forms of recreation. This suggestion indicates the examination of sports and purpose as a smaller category found in a larger concept, which is that of recreation (Fraleigh, 1975). The purpose of engaging in sporting activities is not always explicit, as it cannot be delinked from self-actualization.

Self-actualization might not form the actual purpose of engaging in sporting activities, but it is attained subconsciously. Purpose gives sporting activities some sense of direction going against the proposed concept of natural law regarding sports that delineates sporting activities from purpose. The example cited in the article on Olympic games introduces the second term related to purpose and that is intention. The intention of conducting Olympic games supersedes actual sporting activities and differs from one individual to the next and amongst participating nations.

Sports in this case can be viewed as a medium of actualization of individual and group goals, for example, engagement in sporting activities with the aim of gaining recognition and fame (Fraleigh, 1975). Other individuals engage in sporting activities at the Olympics with the purpose of ensuring their countries are brought to the spotlight. This interrogation of sporting activities reveals that sport in itself does not have a purpose, but social groups or individuals assign the purpose to the sport and as such, the sporting activity cannot achieve additional purpose than that assigned to it by participants.

This is true owing to the nature of sporting activities across the globe in which people engage for varied reasons. A sporting activity might have similar characteristics but achieves different purposes