ABSTRACT
This chapter examines major events that led to the development of the philosophy of sport as an intellectual field of study from its inception in North America to its international standing across Europe and the rest of the world. The philosophy of sport, like its close academic cousins the history and sociology of sport, is a addition to the academic world. By the mid to late 1960s in the USA the philosophy of sport had eclipsed the philosophy of physical education, and had supplanted it as a central academic subject and focus of scholarly inquiry. The linguistic economies generated by the heterogeneous organizations and fields of scholarship in the philosophy of sport indicate more than mere linguistic differences. The main aim of the philosophy of physical education in the UK and USA was to bolster the educational credentials of physical activity in all its various forms, ranging from rudimentary human movement and spontaneous play to highly organized games and sports.
