Interview: Climbing and Philosophy

Stephen E. Schmid is the author of Climbing – Philosophy for Everyone: Because It’s There. Stephen is also Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Wisconsin–Rock County.  His current research focuses on motivation in sport and education.  In the philosophy of sport, he has published and presented on the role of motivation in the conception of play.  Stephen has been rock climbing and mountaineering for more than 20 years.

Why did you decide to edit a book on climbing and philosophy?
I had the idea to pursue the climbing and philosophy book for a year before I approached Wiley-Blackwell with the idea.  The book idea seemed like a great way to merge my two passions.  In addition, I had started to pursue some research in the Philosophy of Sport and examples from climbing proved relevant to the problem I was pursuing.  The merging of climbing and philosophy seemed like an obvious move.

“Because It’s There” – Philosophy and Climbing

Philosopher’s Eyeballers might be interested to know that there’s another book in the ‘Philosophy for Everyone’ stable on climbing (subtitle ‘Because It’s There‘). The book is a pretty in-depth look at various issues, centring around risk, ethics and other issues. It also includes essays that challenge commonly accepted views of climbing and climbing ethics.