Jean-Paul Sartre? Alan Sheridan-Smith? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The presence of an adversary makes planning more complex because the achievement of goals requires the anticipation of counter-measures. A famous philosopher once said something like the following:
In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.
The term “football” corresponds to “soccer” in North America. The above statement has been attributed to French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1960 Jean-Paul Sartre published “Critique de la Raison Dialectique” (“Critique of Dialectical Reason”) which included the following text within a footnote. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
En fait, dans un match de football, tout se complique du fait de la présence de l’équipe adverse. Il y a réciprocité positive entre les coéquipiers dans une rigoureuse liaison avec une réciprocité négative et antagonistique. Mais cette complexité ne change rien à notre problème.
Sartre’s work was translated into English by Alan Sheridan-Smith and published in 1976. The passage above was rendered as follows:2
In fact, in a football match, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team. The positive reciprocity between members of a team is closely connected with a negative and antagonistic reciprocity. But this complication does not alter our problem in any way.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
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