Philosophy & Hurling: Thinking & Playing

Stiofán Ó Murchadha knowing how we know.

- Stiofán Ó Murchadha

We are often unconscious of what it is we are actually doing in our actions, including while playing sports. But this is a good thing. If people were explicitly aware of all they do, two major things would follow. Firstly, they would be awed by how amazing they are as organisms; secondly, nothing would get done. Therefore, it is important that we come to intuit certain forms of practical knowledge, in order for acts like hammering a nail into a wall or playing sport to be possible.

Michael Polanyi’s book Personal Knowledge: Toward a PostCritical Philosophy (1958) will support us in philosophically investigating the ancient Irish sport of hurling, which is something like a cross between hockey, lacrosse, rugby – and some might add sword fighting. The first part of this article will explain Polanyi’s epistemology of knowledge – in other words, how we know what we know. After that, we will apply this theory to the game of hurling.

Tacit & Other Knowledge

Polanyi first offers a distinction between focal and subsidiary awareness. Focal awareness is what you’re consciously aware of or explicitly aware of, and subsidiary awareness is what you are less aware of or implicitly aware of. All knowledge has from-to relations because meaning is brought from the subsidiary to the focal which is part of the reason why Polanyi notes that all knowledge must begin with an act of commitment, which is belief. He writes, ‘‘We must now recognize belief as the source of all knowledge’’ (