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Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy 37

Ron Welters

Towards a
Sustainable
Philosophy of
Endurance Sport
Cycling for Life
Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy

Volume 37

Editor in Chief
Hub Zwart, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NL

Editorial Board
Deryck Beyleveld, Durham University, Durham, UK
David Copp, University of Florida, USA
Nancy Fraser, New School for Social Research, New York, USA
Martin van Hees, Groningen University, Netherlands
Thomas Hill, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
Samuel Kerstein, University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Will Kymlicka, Queens University, Ontario, Canada
Philippe Van Parijs, Louvaine-la-Neuve (Belgium) and Harvard, USA
Qui Renzong, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Peter Schaber, Ethikzentrum, University of Zürich, Switzerland
Thomas Schmidt, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6230
Ron Welters

Towards a Sustainable
Philosophy of Endurance
Sport
Cycling for Life
Ron Welters
Institute for Science in Society, Faculty of Science
Radboud University
Nijmegen, The Netherlands

ISSN 1387-6678     ISSN 2215-0323 (electronic)

Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy
ISBN 978-3-030-05293-5    ISBN 978-3-030-05294-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05294-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964574

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

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Acknowledgements

While—thanks to science and technology—the impact of humankind on our planet

has become pervasive, omnipresent and irreversible, our sense of agency and our
ethical and political capacity to contain and govern these developments seem uncan-
nily limited. I argue that an appropriate concept of endurance sport, in particular
cycling, can help to break the deadlock between widely shared sense of urgency and
discomfort and concrete action.
This book is the result of a long process, which started at the 2009 conference of
the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport in Seattle, where I pre-
sented a hesitant first draft of my ideas on endurance, cycling and sustainability.
Ever since I am enthralled by the philosophy of sport or, in the present case perhaps
better, the philosophy of sustainable endurance sport. The present study is an accu-
mulation of personal sport philosophical debris pushed by the glacier of truly great
thinking. The biggest problem was to put the, during long-distance runs or cycling
sessions often (seemingly) perfectly rolling, proto-philosophical ball-bearing into
proper words. During the iterative process of writing, the ball-bearing always turns
out to have its burrs.
Earlier versions of Chaps. 2, 3 and 5 have been published elsewhere (Welters
2014 (2 & 3), 2016 (5)), while a pre-study of Chap. 6 will be published in due time.
For this study, they have been reworked, adapted and completed. Chapter 7 is the
provisional result of a long-term project started by Yunus Tuncel and David
Kilpatrick, whose characters can best be described with the oxymoron ‘friendly
agonists’. The two final paragraphs of Chap. 8 are a translation and an adaptation of
parts of my ponderings on my formative years in a small village in the south of the
Netherlands (Welters 2011, 2015).
After ‘Seattle’, further thoughts on Loland’s ecosophical work, Sloterdijk’s
ascetological perspective and Van den Berg’s metabletic critique of automated
human movement practices and endurance sport in general as of 2010 have been
presented and discussed during conferences of the International Association for
the Philosophy of Sport, the European Association for the Philosophy of Sport,
the British Philosophy of Sport Association and the biannual Czech Philosophy
of Sport Conference. Many thanks to all these wonderful and self-willed sport

v
vi Acknowledgements

philosophers I met there, even those with a specific interest in ballgames and/or
analytic philosophy.
My special thanks for the constructive comments of and discussions with my
supervisors Hub Zwart, Laurens Landeweerd and Arno Müller. I also would like to
express my gratitude to the Institute for Science in Society at Radboud University
Nijmegen, which patiently hosted my meandering research for many years.
Especially, the lively discussions in the research group Visions of Nature have con-
tributed to this study. Furthermore, many thanks for the feedback I received from a
wide range of colleagues, co-racers, or, on quite a few occasions, a combination of
both, in random order: Pieter Lemmens, Luca Consoli, Martin Drenthen, Leen
Dresen, Paul van den Broek, Rob Lenders, Pieter Aben, Jack Niessen, Hugh
Trenchard, Claus van Aanhold, Raymond Schikhof, Christoph Lüthy, Eric Dücker,
Jan Vorstenbosch, Koen Breedveld, Johan Steenbergen, Riyan van den Born, Ivo
van Hilvoorde, Jan Vorstenbosch, Klaas Landsman, Marjet Derks, Sander Turnhout,
Leo Rouw, Jeroen Otten, Fred van Lent, Rob Cuppen, Lev Kreft, Jernej Pisk, Joca
Zurc, Jésus Ilundáin-Agurruza, Javier Lopez-Frías, Sigmund Loland, Dagmar Dahl,
Albert Piacente, Cesar Torres, Iris Roggema, Bep Kuling, John William Devine,
Cathy Devine, Ivo Jirásek, Filip Kobiela, Irena Martinková, Jim Parry, Pam Sailors,
Heather Reid, Carwyn Jones, Alun Hardman, Jon Pike, Emanuele Isidori, Alfred
Archer, Paul Davis, Peter Hopsicker, Doug Hochstetler, Kenneth Aggerholm,
Roeland Smits, José Luis Pérez Triviño, John Aalbers, Ellen Mulder, Imara Felkers,
Alberto Carrio Sampedro, Feike Beunk, Angela Schneider, Hidde Bekhuis, Steen
Nepper Larsen, James Clifford Greening, Aldo Houterman, Guus Heijnen, Jan de
Leeuw, Sandra Meeuwsen, Nathanja van den Heuvel, Justus Beth, Silje van
Duivenbode, Sarah Teetzel, Paul Sars, Han Rouwenhorst, Tamba Nlandu, Henk
Willems, Lisa Edwards, Kevin Krein, Vera Jansen, Jerzy Kosiewicz, Patrick
Hofman, Tom Vogels, Teije van Prooije, Anneloes Blom, Annechien Langeloo,
Andraz Bole, Irenej Brumec, Igor Kralj, Klemen Mikic, Martina Tomsic, Noortje
ter Berg, Patrick Welsch, Roald Verhoeff, Yunus Tuncel, Gunnar Breivik, David
Kilpatrick, Joos Philippens, Mike McNamee, Marc Van den Bossche, Eman Hurych,
Tim Elcombe, Anders Sookermany, Jeff Fry, Leslie Howe and Andrew Edgar.
I also would like to thank the students at Radboud University Nijmegen who
took part in my philosophy of sport classes and the students I supervised together
with Laurens Landeweerd and Lev Kreft in the Radboud Honours Academy
Thinktank on sport. By way of lively discussions, during and after class, they often
provided me with surprising and refreshing insights into e-sports and Formula 1
racing, as well as into free climbing, BMX (bicycle motocross) and mountain run-
ning. I am also highly indebted to many in-depth conversations with fanatic/frenetic
fellow endurance athletes of a certain age, the so-called age groupers—rarely win-
ning races but always striving for a personal best and qualitative improvement.
Special thanks, finally, to my supporting and loving parents Els and Hans (†), my
similarly cycling and thinking brother Sven, his wife Fabienne, his son Samuel
(even though he calls the little pushbike I gave him a motorcycle), my extensive
family in law, and, of course, Nicolet, my ultimate cycling, running and life-mate.
Acknowledgements vii

Reaching a summit: Nicolet and the author in the French Alps. (Own collection)

References

Welters, R. 2011. Van Eyserbosweg naar Eyserbosweg: Fietsfilosofische plaatservaringen. In

Filosofische beschouwingen over plaats: Verbondenheid met natuur en landschap, ed. R. Van
den Born, M. Drenthen, P. Lemmens, and T. Van Slobbe, 51–70. Zeist: KNNV.
———. 2014. Sport and the environment: Ecosophical and metanoetical intersections. In
The Bloomsbury companion to the philosophy of sport, ed. C. Torres, 163–179. London:
Bloomsbury.
———. 2015. Toevende kannibaal. In De adelaar van Benidorm: Over bijnamen in de sport, ed.
A. De Winde, O. Ibsen, S. Merlevede, and P. Verstraten, 301–305. Antwerpen: Houtekiet.
———. 2016. On ascetic practices and hermeneutical cycles. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 10
(4): 430–444.
Contents

1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling.............   1

1.1 Towards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding
of Endurance.......................................................................................   2
1.2 Philosophical Accounts Beyond Play.................................................  10
1.3 User’s Manual.....................................................................................  18
References....................................................................................................  19
2 Sport and the Environment: Considering Sustainable Thoughts..........  21
2.1 Sustainable Sport................................................................................  22
2.2 Sport and Nature Under Siege............................................................  24
2.3 Ecosophy of Sport...............................................................................  32
2.4 Taking the Measure of Record Sports.................................................  42
References....................................................................................................  45
3 Answering Three Ecosophical Questions: Asceticism............................  47
3.1 Implications of the Ecosophical Norm...............................................  48
3.2 Width and Depth.................................................................................  51
3.3 Close to Nature...................................................................................  57
3.4 Metanoetic Olympism........................................................................  59
3.5 Looking Back and Ahead: Cycling for Life.......................................  63
References....................................................................................................  65
4 Metabletics of Spinal Sport: When Poion Meets Poson.........................  67
4.1 Controversial Ponderings....................................................................  69
4.2 Shifting World-Views: From Poion to Poson......................................  76
4.2.1 1974: A Year of Poion.............................................................  78
4.2.2 2010: A Year 2010 of Poson...................................................  85
4.2.3 Evaluating the Metabletic Watershed.....................................  90
4.3 Taking up Thread of the Ascetological–Ecosophical
Perspective..........................................................................................  94
References.................................................................................................... 100

ix
x Contents

5 Ascetic Practices, Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical

Endurance................................................................................................... 103
5.1 Playing Games.................................................................................... 104
5.2 Furthering the Meaning of Sport........................................................ 109
5.3 Kynical Asceticism............................................................................. 111
5.4 Upwardly Oriented Hermeneutics...................................................... 116
References.................................................................................................... 119
6 Continental Pragmatism: Enduring Life in the Strenuous Mood......... 121
6.1 For the Better...................................................................................... 122
6.2 Finding the Right Gear....................................................................... 123
6.3 Reconsidering the Watershed.............................................................. 128
6.4 Into the Pragmatic Mood.................................................................... 131
6.5 Into the Strenuous Mood.................................................................... 133
6.6 Potential Perils Rebutted..................................................................... 135
References.................................................................................................... 140
7 On Agon and Ecosophical Endurance: Finding Your Own Pace.......... 143
7.1 Sport in Agony.................................................................................... 144
7.2 Retrospective: Agonizing Ecosophy and Ascetology......................... 150
7.3 Agonize Thyself.................................................................................. 153
7.4 Pragmatic Integration.......................................................................... 158
7.5 Into Deep Agony................................................................................. 161
7.6 Enduring Agonistic Ecosophy............................................................ 163
References.................................................................................................... 167
8 Epilogue: Turning in the Widening Gyre................................................. 171
8.1 The Second Coming........................................................................... 172
8.2 A Nearly Perfect Tool......................................................................... 176
8.3 Philosophy of Sport at a Cross Roads................................................. 180
8.4 Lonesome Cannibal............................................................................ 184
8.5 Cycling for Life.................................................................................. 189
References.................................................................................................... 192

About the Author............................................................................................. 195

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Chapter 1
Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism
and Sustainable Cycling

Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up

significant amounts of scarce space, energy, or time.… They can
get the benefits of technological breakthroughs without putting
undue claims on the schedules, energy, or space of others.
(Ivan Illich 1974, p. 63)

Abstract What is the good life? Or: how are we to live? Since ancient times the
answer to this question usually is that we must work on ourselves and improve our-
selves by way of training. This practical and practiced philosophical investigation
will focus on one particular dimension of this striving for human perfection by
means of ‘asceticism’ (a derivative from the ancient Greek askēsis, meaning exer-
cise or training): endurance sports, such as long distance running, cycling and triath-
lon. These are all sports that flourish by dedicated training rather than sheer motor
talent, which makes them not only accessible but also increasingly popular among
the crowd.
Especially the phenomenon of cycling has brought endurance sport within reach
of the masses. Almost everyone can ride and afford a bicycle, a high tech artefact,
which according to Ivan Illich “outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but
all other animals as well” (Energy & equity. Harper & Collins, New York, 1974,
p. 60). This energetic economy makes the bicycle a straightforward tool for a more
sustainable lifestyle. But the stakes of a life that is to be fully lived in endurance are
higher. How can endurance sport at large and cycling in particular contribute not
only to self-knowledge, but also to self-improvement and to sustainability?
Because of its competitiveness and agonistic characteristic—at first sight the
very opposite of peaceful sustainable coexistence—sport usually has a negative
connotation in environmental philosophy or ‘ecosophy’ (a contraction of ecology
and philosophy), a term coined by Arne Naess in the seventies and applied to sport
by Sigmund Loland in the nineties. Inspired by Loland’s attempt to sketch an ecoso-
phy of sport, and strengthened by Peter Sloterdijk’s analysis of man as an upwardly
oriented training animal, set forth in You must Change your Life: On Anthropotechnics

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 1

R. Welters, Towards a Sustainable Philosophy of Endurance Sport,
Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy 37,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05294-2_1
2 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

(2009/2013), as well as insights from historical phenomenology (or ‘metabletics’),

hermeneutics and pragmatism, I will argue for a vertically challenged life in what
William James has called ‘the strenuous mood’: serious and hard pushing, instead
of pedalling around just a little. This results in an upwardly oriented ecosophical
life, leading to qualitative growth, human flourishing, durability and a change for
the better. Agonistic sport and environmental sensitivity: the twain shall not only
meet but merge into a strenuous consequential truth.

Keywords Asceticism · Cycling · Ecosophy · Human flourishing

1.1  owards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding

T
of Endurance

At the very heart of this interpretative-pragmatical research lies the attempt to rec-
oncile aggressive and opposing sport and the peaceful striving for coexistent eco-
logical sound practices. How can the idea of winning, record-setting and
progress—paramount in elite sport, but to some extent usually also present in mass
sport—theoretically and practically be reconciled with the ideal of peaceful coexis-
tence of all creatures great and small, which is crucial to environmental
philosophy?
In the academic philosophy of sport so far relatively little attention has been paid
to sustainability and sport. The most sophisticated attempts to over-think the increas-
ingly problematic relation between sport and environment have been undertaken by
the Norwegian sport philosopher Sigmund Loland, in what I would call his ‘eco-
sophical efforts’ (1996, 2001, 2006). Ecosophy is a term coined by his fellow-­
countryman Arne Naess, cum founder of the deep ecology movement in the early
1970s. As indicated, it is a contraction of philosophy and ecology, and denotes a
“personal total view on the relations between ourselves and nature, which guides
our decisions” (Loland 1996, p. 71).
In his essay Outline of an Ecosophy of Sport (1996) Loland argues that in the
ecological movement competition usually is considered to be the “very counter-­
principle to ecologically sound practice in which cooperation and symbiosis are
considered key values” (p. 70). The Norwegian ecological activist Nils Faarlund, for
instance, reasons that the competition-motivated lifestyle presupposes ‘losers’, and
thus is un-ecological or non-sustainable per se.
Self-realisation for the elite presupposes that the others are denied self-realisation.
Competition as a value is thus excluding and elitist. Outdoor life in the sense of exuberant
living in nature1 presupposes on the other hand the self-realisation of others to achieve one’s
own (i.e., a presentation of self which does not separate the individual from nature)….
Enjoyment in the quality of one’s personal life conduct is an autotelic experiencing of
value, of inner motivation (Cited in Loland 1996, p. 70).

1
This refers to ‘Friluftsliv’, the typically Norwegian predilection for unpolished outdoor-life.
1.1 Towards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding of Endurance 3

Notwithstanding the problematic relation between excluding and ‘agonistic’

competition on the razor’s edge and including and peaceful ‘ecological naturalism’,
based on the work of Naess, Loland develops a set of hypotheses and norms that
gives philosophical evidence for the idea that sport can be ecologically justified.
Key terms in this interactive system of fundamental normative questions and ade-
quate answers are ‘Self-realization!’2 on the one hand, and the idea of ‘biospheric
egalitarianism’, or ‘the democracy of all life forms’, on the other. These are strivings
which often collide, since human self-realisation often seems to be at odds with the
self-realization of other species. Where humans appear, other species usually get the
worst of it. When we really are willing to reconsider our prominent position on
planet earth, we should better take a few steps back.
For example, we might, under certain circumstances, reach the conclusion that human
beings ought to recommend their own withdrawal as the dominant life form on earth to
promote other life forms to live and blossom; this withdrawal may contribute more to the
Self-realization for all. Such norms, critics could argue, cannot serve as a common basis for
society at large (Loland 1996, p. 76).

Living a sustainable sporting life therefore equals oscillating between the Scylla
of self-interest and the Charybdis of flourishing life at large. As an escape route for
navigating between the two extremes Loland proposes Naess’s slogan of ‘simplicity
in means, richness in ends’ as an ‘ecosophical’ rule of thumb. This implies choosing
the simpler, less-sophisticated option—say a standard racing bicycle rather than a
high end time trail machine3—to satisfy ones deeply felt sporting needs. At the same
time, nevertheless, technology can contribute to the ecosophical joy of sport and
thus serve the process of Self-realization. For instance, the introduction of ‘carving
skis’, which make turning more efficient and enable skiers to maintain their speed,
unlike older techniques that require more refined motor skills, has made skiing eas-
ier, therefore accessible to a larger audience, and thus augmenting the net sum of
ecosophical joy through augmented self-development. In short, technology in sport
has a Janus-face, Loland reasons:
[W]e can establish meaningful relations to technology, and technology can expand our
experience of the unity and diversity of life. If increase in joy is able to outweigh on a long
term-basis the ecological costs of production and application, sport technology can be eco-
logically justified (p. 84).

In his ecosophical work, Loland usually focuses on Olympic sports, espe-

cially ‘record sports’,4 such as the 100 metre dash in athletics. For good reasons
he argues that these sports represent the (in the end untenable, un-sustainable
and technology-­driven) ‘record sport dilemma’: “The continuous quest for new

2
With a capital S and an exclamation-mark, indeed.
3
In 2017 bicycle manufacturer Cervélo launched the P5X as the ‘ultimate tri bike’, which costs
approximately 15,000 euro’s.
4
“A sport record is a performance, measured in exact mathematical-physical entities (meters, sec-
onds, or kilograms) within a standardized spatio-temporal framework defined by sport rules, that
is better than all previous performances measured in identical ways” (Loland 2001, p. 128).
4 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

records is built on the impossible quest for unlimited growth in limited systems”
(2001, p. 130).
Other than Loland’s focus on fast fibres and spectacular elite athletics,5 in this
study I will draw special attention to endurance sports, such as swimming, cycling,
long distance running, triathlon (a mixture of these three disciplines) and duathlon
(a.k.a. run-bike-run). I will argue that these are from a spectator’s view perhaps less
attractive, but they have special benefits to offer when it comes to sustainability
issues. They mirror the logic of non-linear qualitative growth.
In Loland’s terminology endurance sports are ‘quasi-record sports’, since “they
are measured and compared by exact timing, but there are no standardized arenas”
(2001, p. 128).6 Ironman distance triathlons,7 for instance, can be performed on
‘fast’ courses, such as in Roth, Germany. There it took the men’s winner in 2016
7:35:39 (a new ‘world record’)8 to cross the finish line. But there are also triathlons
which take place under extremely rough conditions. Consider, for instance, the
Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon in Norway. The winner’s time in 2016 was
10:22:37 (Norwegian Lars Petter Stormo). This means that the Norseman is rela-
tively slow, but extremely difficult. This specimen of über-endurance starts with
swimming in an ice-cold fjord. After being dragged out of the water by special
auxiliary troops, who help competitors to strip off their wetsuits,9 they have to cycle
through a stunning but barren mountainous landscape. The ordeal is rounded off

5
The 100 metre dash is considered the highlight of the modern Olympic Games: explosive, ath-
letic, highly concentrated, and often performed by athletes with great commercial value and cha-
risma. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro sprinter Jamaican Usain Bolt, for instance, received
more exposure and media coverage than Kenian Eliud Kipchoge, the winner of the men’s mara-
thon. While at top level both disciplines require a lot of natural talent, in endurance sport training,
perseverance, dedication, steadiness and phronēsis (practical wisdom), are also essential character-
istics, which, I argue, have special benefits to offer for a full-blown ecosophical take on sport.
6
The third category of sports Loland mentions is constituted by ‘games’, such as soccer, tennis and
handball. There seems to be another, fourth category, however: so-called juried-sports, such as
gymnastics and platform diving. One might furthermore question if combat sports (e.g. boxing,
mixed martial arts, free fighting) are a mixture of games or contests and juried sports or a separate
category In the more methodologically en theoretically oriented Chapters (especially Chap. 5) I
will address the problematic issue of categorising human activities people are inclined to call
‘sport’ in more detail, among others by reconsidering Bernard Suits’s tricky triad of games, play
and sport (1988).
7
An Ironman triathlon consists of 3,8 kms of swimming, followed by 180 kms cycling and rounded
with running a marathon (42.195 kms).
8
It is debatable to use the term ‘record’ here, since there are no standardized arenas in triathlon.
Triathlon is a quasi-record sport in Loland’s grammar: “The Boston Marathon is rather different
from the one in Oslo. The conditions and trails of cross-country ski races vary from race to race.
We talk of records here but in an accurate way. Events with exact performance measurements but
without strictly standardized frameworks shall be referred to as quasi-record sports” (Loland 2001,
p. 128).
9
Due to severe cooling most competitors can’t do this by themselves. To my knowledge, in all
other long distance triathlons help from outside is forbidden. Unlike in professional cycling, com-
petitors in a triathlon are supposed to be self-supporting, except for the so-called ‘energy labs’,
where the athletes can stock up on food and fluids.
1.1 Towards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding of Endurance 5

with a marathon that ends with a frightening climb to the infamous Gaustatoppen,
a.k.a. ‘Zombie Hill’ (elev. 1,883 m.), according to the organisers “a massively steep
slope creeping up to the beginning of the rugged trail run towards the peak”. During
the unpaved part of the climb, which consists of 7 km steep upwards over boulders,
competitors are obliged to be accompanied by two helpers, who can offer assistance
in case of injury or total exhaustion.
The athletes took to the mountains posthaste, climbing out of the valley and into the clouds
to cross Hardangervidda in some of the most intense and challenging weather ever seen on
Norseman. Thick gusty fog, biting rain and 5°C summer weather could deter the most
hardened survivor, but the athletes fought through it—unfortunately, not without casualties
(Meyr 2016).

Norseman: Finishing at Zombie Hill. (Source: Norseman Xtreme Triathlon)

At this point the take on sport as a playful and voluntary attempt to overcome unnec-
essary, self-raised obstacles (Suits 1978/2005) does not seem to apply anymore. For
a different outlook and a broader perspective on the wavering ways of homo faber10
I will therefore propose, criticise and refine the work of the ‘post-­Heideggerian’ and
‘post-Nietzschean’11 German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk (1947–). Throughout this
book, in each chapter from a different angle, I will apply his findings on the ways of

10
A term coined by Karl Marx, meaning ‘man the maker’. In this study homo faber will reveal
him- or herself as a homo asceticus, an inevitably practicing man or woman. In human life it is not
about the things that are made, it is about the making—so process rather than result—a point which
often seems to be overlooked in sport philosophy (Cfr. Aggerholm 2016).
11
Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger are Sloterdijk’s main philosophical role models.
Overall one might call his style eclectic, exuberant and distinctive, however. A more comprehen-
sive reading of Sloterdijk’s philosophical style will be provided in Chap. 5 Ascetic Practices,
Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical Endurance.
6 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

human beings as natural born practitioners in search for a meaningful life fully lived
in endurance, especially cycling.
With regard to the inconvenient ecological truth which, according to a plethora
of scientific findings, we are currently facing, Sloterdijk argues12 for the develop-
ment of so-called ‘homeotechnologies’, a neologism13 referring to the ancient Greek
homeos, meaning ‘alike or ‘similar’. Other than allotechnology (allo means ‘other’
or ‘alien’ in Ancient Greek), the development and implementation of more
ecosystem-­friendly technology may ideally lead to a ‘homeotechnical turn’, which,
according to the Dutch environmental philosopher Sanne van der Hout, provides
“specific opportunities for a more peaceful co-existence of humans and nature”
(2014, p. 423).
Van der Hout argues, nonetheless, that Sloterdijk tends to overestimate the “res-
cue potential of homeotechnology” (2014, p. 437). Elaborating on his ideas unfolded
in You must Change your Life: On Anthropotechnics (2009/2013), during a lecture
at the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 entitled How Big
is ‘Big’?, Sloterdijk has argued that people quite probably:
will remain convinced that it is the task of evolution through constant growth to globalize
material prosperity and the expressive privileges they themselves enjoy. They will refuse to
come to terms with a future that is based on reduction and restraint (cited in Van der Hout
2014, p. 428).

Sloterdijk apparently does not seem to believe in the ability of humans to give up
their ‘kinetic’ and energy-consuming lifestyle. Or, if we measure his findings on the
ecosophy-scale: humans tend to strive for quantity and growth rather than quality
and restraint. Thus: homeo-technology is the best we can get.
The acknowledgement of the ubiquitous kneeling of mankind for shallow hedo-
nism might suggest that Sloterdijk opts for a technological fix of ecological prob-
lems (adaptation) rather than a radical change (mitigation) of our hyper-consuming
lifestyle. In this narrowing perspective new and clean technology is supposed to
resolve the problems caused by traditional polluting industry. Van der Hout agrees
that “thanks to the emergence of homeotechnology the resilience14 of the earth can
be increased” (2014, p. 433). She warns, however, about the pitfall of a totalitarian
homeotechnical control over nature, since, paradoxically, following nature may
even open up new horizons for genetic manipulation.

12
Roughly as of his Spheres Trilogy, published together in 2005 as Being and Space, a reference to
Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927/2008).
13
Sloterdijk shares Heidegger’s habit of enriching the already richly worded German language
with witty but often somewhat enigmatic linguistic findings. He does so, however, with a more
light-hearted touch, I contend.
14
In the Chaps. 6, and particularly 7, I will raise the issue of how to increase the physical resilience
of humans, so that they will take less refuge with an unsustainable life-setting. A physically more
active life may result in less polluting ways of travelling and probably also to a more food con-
scious consumption: “less meat more veggies” (Peter Sloterdijk in Giesen 2011). From a moral
point of view it seems reasonable to not only shift the blame to our vulnerable planet, but to take
responsibility ourselves. Of course developing homeo-technology seems fair, but on the other hand
we should not stop questioning our own behaviour, restrain ourselves and ponder over the idea of
an ‘appropriate withdrawal’, which will be taken up further on.
1.1 Towards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding of Endurance 7

What’s more, since current technoscience obscures the classical distinction between
‘biomachines’ and ‘manmade machines’, this exploitation runs the risk of becoming
increasingly subtle and invisible. Thus, homeotechnology may result in strengthening our
sway over nature even on a molecular level (p. 425).

This dystopic warning against a brave new biotechnological world seems mor-
ally appropriate. From a historical empirical viewpoint, however, one can hardly
neglect the human inclination towards progress by means of ever more sophisticated
and pervasive technology. History learns that people tend to go upwards, not just
onwards. On a larger philosophical scale the multiple characters of our inescapable
upwardly oriented strivings—our almost congenital15 ‘vertical challenge’ in
Sloterdijk’s ironic wording—also has been acknowledged by authors such as the
Dutch science-philosopher Hub Zwart (2016):
Several continental philosophers (from Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche up to
Binswanger and Sloterdijk) have thematised this persistent drive towards increased com-
plexity in terms of the vertical dimension of existence, a dimension which is most obviously
noticeable in humans. Human beings, these authors claim, not only strive for continuation,
propagation and reproduction (the horizontal dimension), but also for optimization and
self-improvement (both individually and collectively), through exercise, experimentation
and technology (p. 254).

The idea of exercise of all sorts, rather than technology as a means for qualitative
human progress and flourishing,16 is omnipresent in Sloterdijk’s You must Change
your Life. By concentrating on physical exercise as a specific form of ‘self-­
technique’—according to Sloterdijk implying “all forms of self-referential practic-
ing and working on one’s own vital form” (2009/2013, p. 340)—I will argue that the
‘anthropotechnical’ turn promoted by him offers a well-operable escape route for
real ‘ecosophical’ change, beyond the calculative limits of homeo-technology.
In the course of this argument for a sustaining concept of sport, the idea of
humans as practicing and necessarily “upward-tending” animals (p. 13) will reveal
itself as a practical-philosophical blueprint for a life lived in appropriate modera-
tion. This ideally results in a rather ‘simple’ life that, nevertheless, can optimally
flourish, in the sense that growth towards well-spirited quality is to be preferred over
hedonistic quantity. If well-understood and well-performed, asceticism teaches us
that the good life comes with a substantial effort.
When put to the ecological litmus-test, the idea that we must learn to revalue our
potential to work on ourselves—the central message of Sloterdijk’s provocative You
must Change your Life—almost automatically leads to the insight that we should
invest in our stamina. We should swim, run or hop on a bicycle rather than in a car

15
In Driven by Technology. The Human Condition and the Biotechnology Revolution (2008) Pieter
Lemmens, furthering Sloterdijk’s findings, contends that technology is constituent of the human
condition since the very beginning. Humans are essentially technological, not accidentally.
16
As expressed in Aristotle’s concept of εὐδαιμονία (eudaimonia), best translated as
‘well-spiritedness’.
8 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

or a plane. I will argue that the bicycle has special benefits to offer when it comes to
an ascetical ecosophical change for the better. 17
The more physical side of the practicing life usually still has a rather negative
connotation in academic philosophical spheres, however. While ‘the body’ or
‘physicality’ as such over the last two decades has been re-introduced in philosophy
by authors such as Wilhelm Schmidt and Michel Onfray, the devotedly and intensely
training and (competitively) sporting body still is largely ignored. A deep frontal
wrinkle still prevails over a sweaty face. This seems to be the case because of the
supposedly aggressive, ruthless and record-setting (thus un-ecosophical) disposi-
tion of sport.
This preference for the cerebral is however undeservedly so, since competitive-
ness (even on the cutting edge) historically preceded the noble art of methodical
thinking. Or, as the Turkish-American sport philosopher and Nietzsche-expert
Yunus Tuncel (2013) stipulates: philosophy originally was drenched in an atmo-
sphere of disputative rivalry. He concludes that in ancient Greece the agonal18 spirit
“had already existed in poetry, mythology, arts, and athletics (italics mine), before
it re-produced itself in thought with the rise of philosophy” (p. 255). In a similar
vein Sloterdijk argues for a more physically oriented basic attitude towards the still

17
It has to be noted that José Ortega y Gasset’s ideas on asceticism and technology, already formu-
lated in the nineteen-thirties, look similar to Sloterdijk’s, who doesn’t mention the Spaniard’s work
in You must Change your Life once. However, there is at least a difference of emphasis in the
interpretation of asceticism of both authors. Whereas Sloterdijk paves the way for the beneficial
‘democratising’ wider implications of ascetology, in The Revolt of the Masses (1932/1993) Ortega
seems at least hesitant about the beneficial range of true asceticism for all.
As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the majority of men—and of women—
are incapable of any other effort that that strictly imposed on them as a reaction to external compul-
sion. And for that reason, the few individuals we have come across who are capable of a spontaneous
and joyous effort stand out isolated, monumentalised, so to speak, in our experience. These are the
select men, the nobles, the only ones who are active and not merely reactive, for whom life is a
perpetual striving, an incessant course of training. Training = askesis. These are the ascetics. This
apparent digression should not cause surprise. In order to define the actual mass-man, who is as
much ‘mass’ as ever, but who wishes to supplant the ‘excellent’, it has been necessary to contrast
him with the two pure forms which are mingled in him: the normal mass and the genuine noble or
man of effort (pp. 65–66).
In other words: mass asceticism always bears the traits of reactive and external ‘horizontality’.
Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza elucidates that (like Sloterdijk’s) Ortega’s ratio-vitalistic asceticism
comes with a substantial vertical effort. “This ethos embraces challenges that demand suffering
and discipline” (2014, p. 289). In the end Ortega y Gasset’s asceticism remains in noncommittal
‘ludic’ spheres, however, Ilundáin-Agurruza contends: “It also values activities non-instrumen-
tally, for what they are, focusing on the process not the result” (p. 289). For Ortega sport is “the
most exalted, serious, and important part of life, while labour ranks second as its derivative . . . life,
properly speaking, resides in the first [i.e., sportive activity] alone; the rest is relatively mechanic
and a mere functioning” (Ortega y Gasset 1941/2002, p. 18). Whilst also Sloterdijk is anything but
a result fetishist, I still argue that his general vertical ascetology is more susceptible for a massive
behavioural change for the better, since it implicitly also aims for concrete results: a more sustain-
able world. It is bottom-up mass (endurance) sport that will change our life for the better, rather
than (‘ludic’, playful) top-down elitarianism.
18
Agon means, among other things, ‘fight’ ‘or ‘struggle’ in Ancient Greek. Further on I will elabo-
rate the concept of agon, notably in Chap. 7.
1.1 Towards an Ascetological-Ecosophical Understanding of Endurance 9

cerebrally fixated, reflective ‘love for wisdom’. He also does so by referring to the
physical basis of ancient Greek culture.
The word ‘philosophy’ undoubtedly contains a hidden allusion to the two most important
athletic virtues, which enjoyed almost universal popularity at the time of Plato’s interven-
tion. It refers firstly to the aristocratic attitude of ‘philotimy’, the love of timè, that glorious
prestige promised to victors in contests, and secondly to ‘philopony’, the love of pónos,
namely effort, burden and strain (p. 194).

You must Change your Life is to be considered a variegated attempt to explore the
wider meaning of asceticism, specifically in its physical manifestation, and to use
its lingering transformative potential for a change for the better. Sloterdijk argues
that a well-performed and properly understood ascetic (and therefore active) life
may lead to a personal metanoia—a turning point, a radical reform, a mitigation of
a consumptive, hedonistic and superficial lifestyle. On a collective societal level
asceticism even may lead to a ‘renaissance’, which in Sloterdijk’s exuberant philo-
sophical grammar is not just bound to fourteenth century Italy, but marks a broader
variety of massive shifts in preferential ascetic practices.
Sloterdijk deducts from a vast empirical stock that each era has its own specific
training regimen. These shared programs attract at first sight scattered, but, all
things considered, analogous practices. As of the introduction of the modern
Olympics in 1896 the ‘athletic ideal’—so prominent in classic Greek culture, with
its already mentioned preference for physical agon and ditto askēsis—has taken the
lead again. According to Sloterdijk this is a “transformation best described as a re-­
somatisation or de-spiritualisation of asceticisms” (2009/2013, p. 27).
In sport, the spirit of competitive intensification found a almost universally comprehensible,
and hence globally imitated, form of expression. It not only completed the ‘rebirth of antiq-
uity’, but also provided the most concrete illustration of the performative spirit of moder-
nity, which is inconceivable without the de-spiritualization of asceticisms. De-spiritualized
asceticism is known as ‘training’, and corresponds to a form of reality that demands fitness
as such, fitness sans phrase, of individuals (p. 335).

At this decisive point the key note of this research comes to the forefront once again.
How to reconcile aggressive and adversarial sport and the peaceful striving for
coexistent ecological sound practices? Or, put in Sloterdijk’s baroque wording: how
to integrate personal metanoetic strivings—the quest for individual fitness—into a
collective and unifying ‘renaissancistic’, re-birthing19 framework?
At present the rapid ecological degradation of Planet Earth should be our main
concern, Sloterdijk argues. One way to face environmental challenges is to train

19
Initially rebirthing just referred to a type of curative breathing technique invented by Leonard
Orr, who proposed that correct breathing can cure disease and relieve pain. I contend that this ode
to the benefits of proper breathing techniques perfectly fits in Sloterdijk’s suggestion for a physi-
cally oriented ascetological framework. Things definitely went wrong, however, when Orr devised
rebirthing therapy in the 1970s after he supposedly re-lived his own birth while in the bath. His
claim that breathing techniques could be used to purge traumatic childhood memories that had
been repressed has been thoroughly criticized and unveiled as unscientific and only attractive for
an irrational clientele by Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich in Crazy Therapies: What are they? Do
they Work? (1996). In 2006, a panel of over one hundred experts participated in a survey of psy-
chological treatments considered rebirthing therapy to be discredited.
10 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

ourselves to become better citizens, contributing to a just and sustainable society. In

order to do so we must20 change our lives and strive for a new horizon of universal
co-operative training practices. This results in a comprehensive ‘general ascetol-
ogy’ which, if properly understood and well-performed, paves the way for a better
common future. However, as already argued, even those philosophers who pretend
to embrace the more physical side of human life, so far have largely neglected sport-
ive physical training techniques as a driving force in human life.21
One can only do justice to the Modern Age as a whole if one relates it to a mental, moral
and technological change that has never been adequately portrayed: the existence of the
moderns shows aspects of a global fitness exercise in which what I have termed the ‘ethical
distinction’, the intense call to elevate life—heard by very few in premodern times—has
been transformed into a universally addressed and multifariously answered metanoetic
imperative (pp. 335–336).

Sloterdijk’s provocative findings regarding our inborn craving for heavy training
practices, and their inherent transformative potentiality for a change for the better,
opens up a more positive evaluation of our upwardly oriented sportive strivings than
Faarlund suggests in his characterization of (competitive) sport as non-sustainable
per se. Or to put this informed claim in bicyclical terms: “Anyone can fight on flat
stretches, but those who remain capable of fighting a duel on the worst of mountains
already deserve to be called Hector or Achilles.”22

1.2 Philosophical Accounts Beyond Play

Peter Sloterdijk’s imaginative use of cycling imagery is not only a conspicuous

metaphor; it is also an actually existing alternative means for a change for the better.
Therefore the ‘push-bike’23 as a high-tech but still relatively ‘clean’ preferential tool

20
‘Must’ (musst) is not very common in written German, in which there is a strong preference for
the more indirect ‘should’ (sollst).
21
This critique is also shared by the Belgian philosopher Marc Van den Bossche (2010), who con-
cludes that the rise in contemporary attention for ‘philosophy and the art of living’ usually does not
include the sweaty ways of what Meinberg (1991) has coined homo sportivus.
22
Thus spoke Sloterdijk in an interview concerning the Tour de France (Gorris and Kurbjuweit
2008).
23
‘Pushbike’ is a British-American expression I came across during a coast to coast cycling trip in
the US in 2001. This expression distinguishes the bicycle from a motor-cycle, on which one just
has to sit, and not to push the pedals. It is the lifting of the knee and the pressure on the calves and
quads that makes the difference between supposedly feeling free and truly being alive. While both
the motor-cyclist and the push-cyclist have developed a routine of photographing themselves next
to sign that indicates the height of a climb, their physical experience of the way to the top is totally
different: stepping on the gas versus intensely pedaling with sore calves and quads. Other than
Robert M. Pirsig suggests in his novel Zen and the Art of Motor-cycle Maintenance (1974), I argue
that riding a push-bike is the best way to actually understand the United States in the footsteps of
Lewis & Clark. I will take up this argument in the final Chapter, entitled Epilogue: Turning in the
Widening Gyre.
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for carving out an appropriate niche for ecosophical flourishing will be gleaming
behind the scenes throughout this study. This will be punctuated with first and sec-
ond hand endurance sport experiences, again, especially those of the cycling kind.
It takes an effort—no philotimy without philopony—but once sufficiently trained,
every philosophical cyclist will experience William James’s magnanimous sensa-
tion of a second wind (1907).
A closer investigation and casuistic application of Sigmund Loland’s, Sloterdijk’s
and other philosophical thoughts on sustainable sport, often still in statu nascendi,
will result in a blueprint for an ‘ecosophical ascetology’ (Welters 2014). This training
program for substantive ecological improvement and for a profound mitigation of our
over-consuming life-style, paves the way for a durable conception of endurance
sports—from elite athletes, dedicated age-groupers and ‘finishers’24 up to occasional
joggers and weekend-warriors (Hochstetler and Hopsicker 2012). The polishing of a
broad-angled lens with sufficient depth of focus on sport in a deteriorating natural
setting will be the main objective of Chap. 2, entitled Sport and the Environment:
Considering Sustainable Thoughts. In Chap. 3, Answering Three Ecosophical
Questions: Asceticism, I will put my ecosophical considerations to the test.
In Chaps. 4, 5 and 6 I will argue for a more holistic, synthetic and processual25
view on sustainable endurance sport. This integrative and deepening tripartite effort
is a necessary exercise, since contemporary academic sport philosophy is often
locked into the binary view of narrow and broad internalism. Narrow internalists, or
formalists, argue that sports are solely constituted by their rules. This restrictive
approach can be characterized as the ‘autotelic’ or self-referential stance. In this
view sport is (just) organised and rule-bound play that is supposed to remain in its
well-defined own domain. Sport is (or ought to be) nothing but sport. Because of the
formal and discursive approach of its subject matter, narrow internalism is said to
have strong connections with analytic philosophy.26
Broad internalists, or interpretivists, on the other hand, reason that sport is more
than just a ‘lusory’ (playful or gratuitous) end in itself. This widening perspective
has strong bonds with (but, as I will argue, is not entirely to be reduced to) philo-
sophical hermeneutics, and advances the idea that sport is not just sport, but also can
be interpreted as a full-fledged means towards other ends. For instance, power, pres-
tige and prize-money on the more cynical side, and a deeper knowledge of life,

24
In long distance endurance sport events many ‘competitors’ do not aim for a high ranking, they
just want to finish the race within the time limit.
25
The Danish sport philosopher Kenneth Aggerholm (2016) has undertaken a well-designated
effort to link Sloterdijk’s ascetological findings with a plea for a less result-oriented and more
process-oriented virtuous approach in the philosophy of sport. Other than his generalist and still
quite ‘ludic’ approach, I will argue for a more specific endurance sport oriented interpretation of
ascetic ‘aretism’, or virtue, however. I will elaborate on this in Chapter 8.Epilogue: Turning in the
Widening Gyre.
26
See for the problematic character of the supposed watershed between ‘analytic’ and ‘continental’
philosophy Fusche Moe (2014), whose findings in this will be addressed in more detail in Chap. 5
Ascetic Practices, Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical Endurance.
12 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

human flourishing, and even experiencing Immanuel Kant’s notion of the sublime
on the idealistic side of the spectre.
I will elaborate on the claims of broad internalism by respectively putting histori-
cal phenomenology (or ‘metabletics’), hermeneutics, and pragmatism to the
ascetological-­ecosophical litmus-test. In Chap. 4, entitled Metabletics of Spinal
Sport: When Poion meets Poson, the historical phenomenology—or ‘metabletics’—
of the controversial27 Dutch psychiatrist and phenomenologist Jan Hendrik van den
Berg (1914–2012) will be operationalised to grasp the subject matter at stake: The
viability of (endurance) sport, specifically cycling, as a tool for carving out meaning
beyond the often-cited portable definition of Bernard Suits of game-playing28 as a
“voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles” (1978/2005, p. 55).
Metabletics is the ‘doctrine of change’.29 It mirrors the conviction that humans
really are different, over time and in varied settings. The methodological baseline is
the idea that there are striking similarities between at a first glance unrelated events
occurring in a certain period. De Reflex (1973) is a metabletic critique of contempo-
rary egalitarianism and thoughtless and uncritical herd behaviour. Van den Berg
wants to switch on consciousness again and make humans real, alive persons again,
who are more than just a bundle of unreflective reflexes. He is horrified by the
­post-­religious celebration of sheer physical acts that, literally, run over our spine,
without the faintest interference by the cortex. The virulent author wants to take us
back to, literally, pre-reflexive times. Van den Berg particularly disapproves of those
who practice sport in a group. Regarding cycling in a peloton he sighs: “The reflex
discerns herb nor tree, knows no nature; the reflex has no land, no homeland” (117,
my translation).
Counter to Van den Berg’s intuitive rejection of spinal sporting practices, I will
change the perspective in the direction of a more positive attitude towards seem-
ingly pointless training and competitive practices. My metabletic analysis will focus
on the miracle year of 1974, a highlight in the history of sport, arguing that 1974 is
for the greater part a year of poion, of quality, of fully being in the world. Whilst, by
comparison, 2010 turns out to be instead a year of poson, of quantitative, Narcissistic
self-orientation.

27
Van den Berg may be considered a radical conservative with sometimes questionable, and any-
thing but egalitarian thoughts. Still, for the same reason one might argue that his provocative
thoughts open up challenging new societal horizons, for instance when it comes to our apparent
inclination to turn towards technological fixes, rather than bridling ourselves and returning to a life
that is less consumptive—a striving which also often shows up in ‘leftist’ eco-philosophy, with its
incompatible . In this sense Van den Berg’s critique echoes Arne Naess’s plea for human modesty
and the anti-hedonistic undercurrent in his ‘non-anthropocentrism’. I will elaborate on this in
Chap. 4 Metabletics of Spinal Sport: When Poion meets Poson.
28
The philosophy of sport suffers from a semantic confusion when it comes to game-playing and
sport Suits himself speaks of a ‘tricky triad’ consisting of play, games and sport. 1988. This will be
discussed in more detail in Chap. 5 Ascetic Practices, Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical
Endurance.
29
Metaballein means ‘to change’ in ancient Greek.
1.2 Philosophical Accounts Beyond Play 13

Nevertheless, furthering Van den Berg’s metabletic spinal intuition towards an

ecosophical-ascetological understanding is still worthwhile, I argue. A proper and
deeper understanding of the repetitive nature of endurance sport, might even pave
the way for a radical turn in life on the individual and the collective level. Once
engrained through dedicated training practices the reflex will even turn out to be the
very necessary condition for truly experiencing the land, perhaps even a homeland.
Reflexes ideally result in reflections.
Chapter 5, Ascetic Practices, Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical Endurance,
embellishes broad internalist approaches which recently have been undertaken
recently in the philosophy of sport,30 and focuses on endurance sport in particular.
Self-improvement through repetitive practice (askēsis) has always been a key theme
of human existence. Our ‘ascetic planet’ is inhabited by individuals who are con-
stantly and relentlessly training themselves for the better. This may seem self-­
focused, but it may also have a broader scope: we train ourselves to become better
humans, thereby contributing to a just and sustainable society. Paradoxically, how-
ever, this will only work when we become fully aware of our exercises as forms of
life that engage the practicing person. For accomplished bicyclists means and ends,
and narrow and broad outlooks on the training and sporting subject, will result in
what Sloterdijk refers to as the sensation of being submerged in a “spinning cycling
pantheism” (Gorris and Kurbjuweit 2008).
An applied and specified hermeneutics of endurance cycling can enrich our
understanding of this sports activity as a form of asceticism. As such I will elaborate
a view on cycling as an upwardly oriented ‘spiral’ that can contribute not only to
self-knowledge and self-improvement on the individual level (metanoia), but also to
an ‘ecosophical renaissance’ on the collective societal level. Real ascetics are prone
to go upwards, not just onwards. Those who learn to agonize in order to optimize
their ascetic potentialities will in the end become better human beings, step by step
(Welters 2016).
From the application of Sloterdijk’s dialogical hermeneutics we learn that virtu-
ous, upwardly oriented spiral cycling is a preferential form of asceticism that can be
performed in the great wide and preferably hilly open spaces at your own pace. By
cultivating the good habit of cycling as a relatively sustainable ‘anthropotechnical’
means we not only learn to fight the struggle with and against ourselves, but also to
transform our often uncompromising attitude towards our natural environment into
a coexistent ecosophical agony with the world. Somehow we are all natural ascetics
born into a world filled with hindrances. Thus, we may argue that in a meaningful
ascetic life cycling is an involuntary attempt to overcome necessary obstacles.
For metanoetic inspiration Sloterdijk in You must Change your Life also briefly
refers to William James’s (1842–1910) thoughts on religious conversions (pp. 304–
306). The idea of betterment through well-understood and well-performed training
programmes has a stronger connection with pragmatism in general and James’s
Spartan plea for the ‘strenuous mood’ and ‘precipitousness’, however. Also James’s

30
A special issue of Sport, Ethics and Philosophy has been solely dedicated to sport and hermeneu-
tics (Lopez Frias and Edgar 2016).
14 1 Prologue: The Good Life, Asceticism and Sustainable Cycling

description of the blessing of experiencing a beneficial ‘second wind’, unravelled in

The Energies of Man (1907), that one may experience after intense training prac-
tices of all sorts, implicitly resonates in Sloterdijk’s plea for asceticism.
The rhythms of regeneration hold the secret of the overexertion that leads to higher perfor-
mance levels. This phenomenon has been intuitively comprehensible since time immemo-
rial, and had already been exploited for intensive training sessions in antiquity; on the other
hand, the ancients were also familiar with the phenomena of overtraining that appear if
regeneration rhythms are disregarded. With increases in mental and fine motor perfor-
mance, supercompensation is augmented by a form of superadaptation. ... Recent research
in the fields of learning theory, neuro-motorics, neuro-rhetoric and neuro-aesthetics con-
solidate and vary didactic intuitions that originate in early asceticisms and artistries
(2009/2013, pp. 320–321).

Sloterdijk does not shrink from hyperbole and extremes to score his ascetologi-
cal point. He also refers to Franz Kafka’s hunger artist for instance, who continued
to starve himself to death, even when the audience had forgotten he existed.
Like the hunger artist, the athletes have a message for the psychologically poorest and the
physically weakest that is worth sharing in: the best way to escape from exhaustion is to
double the load (p. 417).

In Chap. 6, Continental Pragmatism: Enduring Life in the Strenuous Mood

(2012), the pragmatist outlook on endurance sport, proposed by Douglas Hochstetler
and Peter M. Hopsicker and inspired by William James, will be taken up and put
into perspective. I agree with the authors that to fully flourish, we have to become
true runners and real cyclists rather than dabbling joggers or occasional weekend
warriors indeed. Counter to their claim for determining the golden mean between
sportive achievement and social environment (2016), I will argue for a more indi-
vidualistic and perhaps even somewhat anti-social view on the Aristotelian ideal of
human flourishing, or eudaimonia, however Decidedly developing ones very own
personal ‘vertical challenge’ may be the incentive for the more sustainable life-
style we need on the collective level—the highly necessary ecosophical renais-
sance. Only those who climb mountains—preferably on their own, or in a small
group, and at their own pace—deserve to be called a Hector or Achilles, showing
the way towards a more sustainable lifestyle by acting accordingly.
Picking up the pieces, and trying to further equalise the meandering and bumpy
uphill path towards meaning and consequential truth, enables us to cast a look at the
stunning scenery while climbing, instead of watching for potholes at every single
step or pedal-stroke. Van den Berg’s historical phenomenology has proven its ben-
efits as a social critique of ‘spinalism’.31 But in the end metabletics fails to under-
stand ‘spinalized’ human movement practices as the very possibility of overcoming
the oblivion of being truly human. It seems as if Van den Berg overlooks the true

31
I propose this generic term for a criticism of our high tech and literally inhumane society which
largely overlaps with Heidegger’s Seinsvergessenheit (‘forgetfulness of being’ or ‘oblivion of
being’), as well as to some extent Sloterdijk’s already mentioned criticism of allo-technology, and
the more frequently used ‘critique of technical reason’ (E.g. Van den Bossche 1995).
1.2 Philosophical Accounts Beyond Play 15

nature of spinal exercises.32 Hermeneutics, the second theoretical impetus brought

to the fore, turned out to be capable of defending verticality against allegations of
being unsustainable by putting asceticism in a larger historical interpretive frame-
work. These continental and broad internal assets so far have resulted in an ascetic
plea for cycling uphill at your own pace as an involuntary anthropotechnical attempt
to overcome necessary hilly obstacles.
Nevertheless, there still remains a non-operational metaphysical nucleus in both
depicted ‘continental’ initiatives for developing a broad internal view on the desir-
able ways of homo asceticus. How to move up from subtle and contextualized deep
thinking to concrete actions? How to convert the call from the stone to change our
lives for the better into feasible deeds? To counter this heuristic flaw, during the
philosophical-theoretical underling of my argument I have introduced a rudimen-
tary version of pragmatism to strengthen and materialise my claims for a full and
sustainable life in endurance. In the final part of the theoretical chapter Continental
Pragmatism: Enduring Life in the Strenuous Mood (Chap. 6) I will tentatively fur-
ther the (potentially beneficial) pragmatist take on endurance sport. Particularly
William James’s radical empiricism and teleological pragmatism—as expressed in
catch-phrases as ‘truth in consequences’ and ‘truth’s cash value’—will prove its
added value. His subtle and well-worded pragmatism33 may even overcome the
­classic philosophical stalemate between, successively, perfect ideas and imperfect
shades, ousia and psyche, universals and particulars, res cogitans and res extensa,
noumena and phenomena, realism and relativism, noesis and noema, signifiant and
signifié, things and words, and all other infertile and in the end inoperable dicho-
tomic attempts to grasp being or the problematic status of the world. According to
James practices cannot be understood with tools, things, ideas or words that exist
outside these practices. It is the practice itself that constitutes meaning.

32
This is an explanatory weakness metabletics shares with ‘classical’ phenomenology. The attempt
to get to the core of things paradoxically leads to alienation of the matter in question. The Dutch
philosopher of technology Laurens Landeweerd stipulates that the famous dictum of the founding
father of phenomenology Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), ‘Zu den Sachen Selbst’ (towards the
things themselves) “is notorious because for those who follow him, his phenomenological ideas
seem to imply a reduction of knowledge of things to knowledge of appearances” (2016, p. 1). “In
stressing the textu(r)al nature of our reality, and analyzing the underlying structures of our under-
standing of reality as more fundamental than that reality itself, the above schools of thought tend
to reduce things to contextu(r)ality, thus robbing us of the ability to experience their ‘thingly’
nature. As such, they echoed the death of metaphysics (as the philosophy of being) and its replace-
ment by the discursive, something already premeditated by Ludwig Feuerbach. As early as 1848,
he stated that his age held ‘a preference for the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original,
fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence’” (p. 11).
33
Not be confused with ‘crude pragmatism’ in sports coaching: “the view that the right approach
to coaching is the one that gets results’, most obviously on the scoreboard or on the clock” (Devine
and Knight 2017, p. 35).
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Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon-colored; add sugar

gradually, then fold in white of eggs beaten until stiff and dry. Add
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 Jelly Roll
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon melted butter

Beat egg until light, add sugar gradually, milk, flour mixed and
sifted with baking powder and salt, then butter. Line the bottom of a
dripping-pan with paper; butter paper and sides of pan. Cover
bottom of pan with mixture, and spread evenly. Bake twelve minutes
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 Election Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup bread dough
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sour milk
⅔ cup raisins seeded, and cut in pieces
8 finely chopped figs
1¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon clove
¼ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt

Work butter into dough, using the hand. Add egg well beaten,
sugar, milk, fruit dredged with two tablespoons flour, and flour
mixed and sifted with remaining ingredients. Put into a well-
buttered bread pan, cover, and let rise one and one-fourth hours.
Bake one hour in a slow oven. Cover with Boiled Milk Frosting.
 One Egg Cake
¼ cup of butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1½ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and egg well beaten. Mix
and sift flour and baking powder, add alternately with milk to first
mixture. Bake thirty minutes in a shallow pan. Spread with
Chocolate Frosting.
 Chocolate Cake I
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 small eggs
½ cup milk
1½ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
2 ozs. chocolate, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and yolks of eggs well
beaten, then whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Add milk, flour mixed
and sifted with baking powder, and beat thoroughly. Then add
chocolate and vanilla. Bake forty minutes in a shallow cake pan.
 Chocolate Cake II
½ cup butter
1½ cups sugar
½ cup milk
2¼ cups flour
¼ teaspoon soda
¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
Whites 5 eggs
2 squares Baker’s chocolate, grated

Cream the butter; add sugar gradually, milk, and flour mixed and
sifted with soda and cream of tartar. Beat whites of eggs, and add to
first mixture; then add chocolate, and beat thoroughly. Bake forty-
five minutes in a moderate oven.
 Chocolate Marshmallow Cake
Follow recipe for Chocolate Cake II. As soon as cake is removed
from pan, cover bottom with marshmallows pulled apart with tips of
fingers, but not quite separated into halves. The exposed soft surface
will quickly adhere to hot cake. Pour over Chocolate Fudge Frosting.
 Chocolate Nougat Cake
¼ cup butter
1½ cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 squares chocolate, melted
⅓ cup powdered sugar
⅔ cup almonds, blanched and shredded

Cream the butter, add gradually one and one-half cups sugar, and
egg unbeaten; when well mixed, add two-thirds milk, flour mixed
and sifted with baking powder, and vanilla. To melted chocolate add
one-third cup powdered sugar, place on range, add gradually
remaining milk, and cook until smooth. Cool slightly, and add to
cake mixture. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes in round layer cake
pans. Put between layers and on top of cake White Mountain Cream
sprinkled with almonds.
 Chocolate Dominoes
½ cup pecan nut meat
½ cup English walnut meat
½ cup figs
½ cup dates
Grated rind 1 orange
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 square chocolate, melted

Mix nut meats, figs, and dates, and force through a meat chopper,
or chop finely. Add remaining ingredients, toss on a board sprinkled
with powdered sugar, and roll to one-third inch in thickness. Cut in
domino shapes, spread thinly with melted unsweetened chocolate,
and decorate with small pieces blanched almonds to imitate
dominoes.
 Cream Pie I
⅓ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1¾ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder

Mix as One Egg Cake. Bake in round layer cake pans. Put Cream
Filling between layers and sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
 Cream Pie II
Make as Cream Pie I, using French Cream Filling in place of Cream
Filling.
 Cocoanut Pie
Mix and bake same as Cream Pie. Put Cocoanut Filling between
layers and on top.
 Washington Pie
Mix and bake same as Cream Pie. Put raspberry jam or jelly
between layers and sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
 Chocolate Pie
2 tablespoons butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1⅓ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix and bake same as Cream Pie. Split layers, and spread between
and on top of each a thin layer of Chocolate Frosting.
 Orange Cake
¼ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1⅔ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, eggs well beaten, and milk.
Then add flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. Bake in a thin
sheet in a dripping-pan. Cut in halves, spread one-half with Orange
Filling. Put over other half, and cover with Orange Frosting.
 Quick Cake
⅓ cup soft butter
1⅓ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1¾ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ lb. dates, stoned and cut in pieces

Put ingredients in a bowl and beat all together for three minutes,
using a wooden cake spoon. Bake in a buttered and floured cake pan
thirty-five to forty minutes. If directions are followed this makes a
most satisfactory cake; but if ingredients are added separately it will
not prove a success.
 Boston Favorite Cake
⅔ cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3½ cups flour
5 teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, eggs beaten until light, then
milk and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. This recipe
makes two loaves, or one-half the mixture may be baked in
individual tins.
 Cream Cake
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
⅔ cup thin cream
1⅔ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon ginger

Put unbeaten eggs in a bowl, add sugar and cream, and beat
vigorously. Mix and sift remaining ingredients, then add to first
mixture. Bake thirty minutes in a shallow cake pan.
 Currant Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
Yolk 1 egg
½ cup milk
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup currants mixed with
1 tablespoon flour

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and eggs and egg yolk well
beaten. Then add milk, flour mixed and sifted with baking powder,
and currants. Bake forty minutes in buttered and floured cake pan.
 Citron Cake
¼ lb. butter
½ lb. sugar
3 eggs
½ cup milk
½ lb. flour
1 tablespoon brandy
1 cup citron, thinly sliced, then cut in strips
1½ teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten,
milk, and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. Beat whites of
eggs until stiff, and add to first mixture, then add brandy and citron.
Bake in a moderate oven one hour.
 Velvet Cake
½ cup butter
1½ cups sugar
Yolks 4 eggs
½ cup cold water
1½ cups flour
½ cup corn-starch
4 teaspoons baking powder
Whites 4 eggs
⅓ cup almonds, blanched, and shredded

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten,
and water. Mix and sift flour, corn-starch, and baking powder, and
add to first mixture; then add whites of eggs beaten until stiff. After
putting in pan, cover with almonds and sprinkle with powdered
sugar. Bake forty minutes in a moderate oven.
 Walnut Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
Yolks 3 eggs
½ cup milk
1¾ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
Whites 2 eggs
¾ cup walnut meat, broken in pieces

Mix ingredients in order given. Bake forty-five minutes in a

moderate oven. Cover with White Mountain Cream, crease in
squares, and put one-half walnut on each square.
 Spanish Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
Yolks 2 eggs
½ cup milk
1¾ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Whites 2 eggs

Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in shallow tins and spread

between and on top Caramel Frosting.
 Cup Cakes
⅔ cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3¼ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon mace

Put butter and sugar in a bowl, and stir until well mixed; add eggs
well beaten, then milk, and flour mixed and sifted with baking
powder and mace. Bake in individual tins. Cover with Chocolate
Frosting.
 Cinnamon Cakes
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1¼ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix ingredients in the order given, and bake in individual buttered

cake tins.
 Almond Cakes
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
⅓ cup milk
2 eggs
1⅓ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup Jordan almonds, blanched and cut in pieces

Mix ingredients in order given, and bake in individual cake pans.

 Brownies
⅓ cup butter
⅓ cup powdered sugar
⅓ cup Porto Rico molasses
1 egg, well beaten
⅞ cup bread flour
1 cup pecan meat, cut in pieces

Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in small shallow fancy cake

tins, garnishing top of each cake with one-half pecan.
 Chocolate Sponge
½ cup butter
¼ cup prepared powdered cocoa
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon clove
½ cup cold water
1 cup flour
3 teaspoons baking powder

Cream the butter; add cocoa, yolks of eggs well beaten, sugar
mixed with cinnamon and clove, and water. Beat the whites of eggs,
and add to first mixture alternately with flour mixed and sifted with
baking powder. Bake in small tins from fifteen to twenty minutes.
 Devil’s Food Cake I
½ cup butter
2 cups sugar
Yolks 4 eggs
1 cup milk
2⅓ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
Whites 4 eggs
2 squares chocolate
½ teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter, and add gradually one-half the sugar. Beat yolks
of eggs until thick and lemon-colored, and add gradually remaining
sugar. Combine mixtures, and add alternately milk and flour mixed
and sifted with baking powder; then add whites of eggs beaten stiff,
chocolate melted, and vanilla. Bake forty-five to fifty minutes in an
angel cake pan. Cover with White Mountain Cream (see p. 528).
 Devil’s Food Cake II
4 squares Baker’s chocolate
½ cup sugar
½ cup sweet milk
Yolk 1 egg
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
¼ cup sour milk
1 egg
1⅛ cups flour
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate over hot water, add one-half cup sugar, and
gradually sweet milk; then add yolk of egg, and cook until mixture
thickens. Set aside to cool. Cream the butter, add gradually one-half
cup sugar, egg well beaten, sour milk, and flour mixed and sifted
with soda. Combine mixtures and add vanilla. Bake in shallow cake
pans, and put between and on top boiled frosting. Add to filling one-
fourth cup raisins seeded and cut in pieces, if desired.