Between sport and bioethics: Grounding the philosophy of mountaineering

Abstract

Mountaineering encompasses a vast number of practices and it is becoming an umbrella term for a set of human outdoor practices. Although categorised as a sport, mountaineering resists to the standard definition of sport and especially to mainstream understanding of sport as a competitive activity. On the other hand, usual ethical questions concerning sports do not cover the vast majority of mountaineering practices, thus calling for a wider normative perspective - a bioethical analysis. It is argued that such an approach could ground the possibility of understanding mountaineering as a peculiar sort of sport, and differentiate its special features by using bioethical analysis. Thus, it is showed that mountaineering is a unique sport, but also that mountaineer shares and promotes a genuine life philosophy exemplifying a truly bioethical worldview. Mountaineer is guided by a unique set of core values encapsulated under something we can and should call the philosophy of mountaineering.