I wasn’t sure where to put this, so I popped in in history (the closest thing to an ‘academic’ forum).
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To all professional philosophers or postgraduates in philosophy,
We invite contributions for two new book projects, involving philosophy
and the martial arts.
The first is a book of popular philosophy for Open Court press, part of
the ‘Philosophy and Popular Culture’ series. Submissions should be
accessible, lively and draw on martial arts to introduce readers to
philosophical ideas, issues and debates. We urge contributors to
familiarise themselves with the format and style of the series: http://www.opencourtbooks.com/categories/pcp.htm.
The second is an edited academic monograph, comprising refereed papers.
Contributors should submit a title and one-paragraph abstract (for one or
both of the projects), by no later than March 31st 2007. Contributions
can be emailed to Dr. Damon Young (youngd@unimelb.edu.au).
For more information, please contact Damon Young or Professor Graham Priest
(g.priest@unimelb.edu.au).
When that says contact you or Graham Priest, does that, ah… mean you work with Priest? Because if so… neat. And I mean neat in the most awesome sense of the word possible.
Is philosophy hard wired into human beings? Why else do they crap up perfectly good fighting arts by imposing such a structure upon them which denies the reason for their existance?
There’s certainly an urge to make sense of things, e.g. to grasp the fundamentals of existence. Some people just accept what they’ve inherited, others go further in their examination.
As for the fighting arts, there’s a tendency to obscure with pseudo-philosophy - it’s often not genuine philosophy, even if it deals in metaphysics and ethics.
But there’s nothing wrong with using martial arts as a pathway to philosophical analysis (which is what we’re doing). Its combination of cultural ‘baggage’ and practice also makes for fascinating inter-cultural discussion, or history of ideas study.
Whether the fighting art is crapped up or not would have to depend on the philosophy. Some philosophical standpoints would bring rules and formality into situations where they don’t belong. Other philosophies would be designed to strip away preconceived notions and help the fighter find the most natural and simple solution.
An existential approach to martial arts would be based on personal choice. A truely taoist approach would be adaptive and work in realation to the opponent. REAL Tai Chi (not the mass group in the park, or the hippie relaxation crap) can be very effective, and is essentially the physical practice of Taoism.
