Andy Pintus – Philosophy Professor, WVU
Is winning everything? Yes. No. Maybe. I don?t know! They all appear equally good and equally bad answers. One consideration could be that very general questions are the most difficult to answer. Every reasonable answer seems to need qualification. Another difficulty in answering ?is winning everything?? could be that the terms are relative or
somewhat vague concepts. What does winning mean or refer to? How are we to construe the meaning of ?everything?. To begin thinking about ?The Question? we can examine a few possible and stereotypical answers and see how well the answers suffice.
Is winning everything? If we answer, ?yes?, does that mean we must win at all costs?
Is winning the highest principle or concern? We can imagine someone who accepts this.
Maybe an athlete who unfairly and outside of the rules of competition gains advantage
over a competitor, by sabotage or cheating, or, the coach who throws chairs, butts-head
and chokes his athletes, when not winning, or even the fan that crudely and aggressively
verbally accosts a fan from a visiting team. We can quickly see the principle ?winning is everything? run-amuck, when too much emphasis is placed on it. On the other hand, winning is nice. Most everyone would say, (considering a win or loss) that they would
want to win. Success is sweet, so nice, we could wish it for everyone. So, is winning everything? Yes, but only to a degree?whatever that means.
Is winning everything? We could answer ?no?. There are so many other values that can be considered of equal or even greater importance. Values like, fairness, playing by the rules, sportsmanship, hard-work, discipline, determination, and the other effects on character that a journey of sustained effort or training builds. In sports like gymnastics
or track and field an athlete can have an outstanding performance, a personal best
performance that surprises coach and athlete alike, but the athlete not win. In those
cases winning is not everything. It could be nice. It can be rewarding and fun to win.
But all the rewards of winning can be had, without winning. Giving an honest effort or having a maximum performance can be as or more meaningful than winning. So, is winning everything? No. It ranks high, but it may not be the highest principle.
Well, someone might respond to this ?no? answer in this way. If winning is not the highest principle, but we take some other principle like sportsmanship or playing by the rules, or whatever principle we accept as ultimate, aren?t we just redefining what winning is? Don?t we still hold winning to be the highest principle, even if we answer ?no? . If we say that the winner of the game may not be the one with the highest score, but the one who showed the most heart, or was the best of sport, or showed the most improvement, win or lose, then that?s what winning is. Accepting one of these principles is everything! That?s what makes you a winner, not winning. But if that?s the case then winning is
everything even when its not.
