What is the purpose/significance in winning?

To prove that you are superior in whatever you do as winning empowers the nature of mankind exceeding all boundaries to be the victor.

Winning is a vague concept without describing what kind of winning. I think if you are in a debate with another person who has not seen the other side of the debate and you 'win' him over, you actually both win and that's a good thing. If you're arguing and your goal is just to win the argument, not such a good thing. I've noticed that some couples would rather win an argument, usually about some trivial thing, than have a good relationship. If you're thinking of competitive sports, there should be a winner. That's why it's a competitive sport so the best athlete wins.You shouldn't participate in organized competitive sports if you don't want to win or are going to be sore loser if you don't.

its a short-term reward.

Competition can be good and gives one a sense of identity. A person is this as opposed to his opponent.

All the rules of sport are supposed to make all of the factors as even as possible so that the determining factor that tips the scales is "skill".

Sport is an experiment in justice of sorts. and winning is the little food pellet the one gets for pushing the button. I don't mean that these things are meaningless just because they're short-term, but it's like a map or symbol or microcosm for a larger life.

Winning is show someone that they did whatever in a positive way and at the same time it's to show the opponent what the winner did differently to tip the scales.

It's the conclusion of a hypothesis

To make a person life 'positive'.

It begins with babyhood. When a child gulps that soft simple early form of food, the mother shows an exaggerated form of appreciation as if the child had performed some extra-ordinary feat by just gulping the food pushed into its mouth! The child has the first 'feel' of having won something.

Then when it manages to scribble some form which does not even remotely resemble an alphabet, or it mumbles a word (just a repetition of what it heard).

Human beings have to 'choose' to be life-positive or life-negative in all their actions. Animals are always 'life-positive' by default. So 'winning' provides an incentive, some motivation to a person, till he evolves deep enough, and does not need any external motivation to seek!

As the poster Houston listed several reasons for winning. But I think it helps to define our unique talent that we are blessed with. In the family unit there is a natural rivalry that develops always but this is a place where we begin to fine ourselves in a manner and environment that will bring respect and not harm for all siblings involved. It is here that we develop our individuality and in so doing our sense of winning.

The teen years are a time to free itself of family as a chick pecks away the egg it grew up in. It is all a necessary process so that what we are at home and that we are born with will in time be benefit to others as well.

This is what winning is all about. There are those extraordinary ones who had a dream way back when the entire family and those around them were all a part of that. It's the journey of success win or lose and all that are part of that will never forget the road the winner took them.

These are seeds for the future. It instills dreams and passions for a mortal to become immortal. To be a god for one day as the olympiads use to be in the days of Rome.

Winning provides a way to create dreams and goals and commitment to fulfill them. It makes competitors having to be better than others so that they will elevate themselves to the next level. It doesn't necessarily have to be in sports but in any field of activity that winners have opened up doors to before them.

Even if one man wins it is a step forward for mankind. Those are the sentiments of Neil Armstrong when he placed his first foot on the moon. He did not think that of himself. But he understood the weight and magnitude of it all for all of mankind in all of history, past, and present, and future and every nation in the world.

This is what winning does.

There is more that can be said but I'm afraid I might start rambling. Sorry Hector.

Take care.

in my humble opinion, there isn't one. if you win or lose, someone won, and someone lost. if you win, then you were better than them that time. if you lost, you were worse than them that time.

Most people think that winning shows that you are better, but i ask: Better at what?

I think winning, true winning, is when you feel good about yourself and others.

So the significance of winning is that people are happier. It is a phycological thing that dictaets whether you are happier or unhappy.

But winning to me is a matter of effort or personal achievment, not the final score.

Pride

Winning and losing in games is a deep metaphor for surviving vs dying. Winning is a metaphor for overcoming death.

- Winning what?

The affection of a woman - companionship

A bet - monetary

A game of sport - evidence of skill proficiency

A game of knowledge - evidence of applied wisdom or logic

An argument - control (right or wrong)

A trial - freedom for someone

A war - freedom for everyone (we hope)

Respect - Respect

On the outside - by proving you are superior than others.

On the inside - it reveals your fear of losing to others.