Hermes3X
08-03-2004, 07:03 AM
I was a philosophy major back at school, so here goes. I hope you get the joke
Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA as they are more commonly known, are a fairly recent phenomenon in the American Martial Arts scene. While MMA display a typically American approach to problem solving (throw all possibilities into a big vat; mix; pick one which "works") its concern for "reality" and realistic fighting techniques border on the pathological. Of wider scope, MMA epistemological methods are yoked to a heavy metaphysics of presence and display the same disdain for the alterity of anecdotal evidence . Specifically, MMA, especially of the UFC camp, have created a literal arena where the truth of any martial arts proposition can be tested. Further, by disallowing any claim of efficacy from any technique that cannot be shown to work inside this arena, MMA discount completely that which is not immediately present. Upon discounting techniques that have anecdotal claims of efficiency, MMA strives to acheive an atemporal paradise of grabs, chokes and bars. By discounting oral history and bounding the ground of truth with literal bars, MMA strip rich possibilities of expression from unarmed martial endeavors and leave only the desert of logocentrism behind.
Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA as they are more commonly known, are a fairly recent phenomenon in the American Martial Arts scene. While MMA display a typically American approach to problem solving (throw all possibilities into a big vat; mix; pick one which "works") its concern for "reality" and realistic fighting techniques border on the pathological. Of wider scope, MMA epistemological methods are yoked to a heavy metaphysics of presence and display the same disdain for the alterity of anecdotal evidence . Specifically, MMA, especially of the UFC camp, have created a literal arena where the truth of any martial arts proposition can be tested. Further, by disallowing any claim of efficacy from any technique that cannot be shown to work inside this arena, MMA discount completely that which is not immediately present. Upon discounting techniques that have anecdotal claims of efficiency, MMA strives to acheive an atemporal paradise of grabs, chokes and bars. By discounting oral history and bounding the ground of truth with literal bars, MMA strip rich possibilities of expression from unarmed martial endeavors and leave only the desert of logocentrism behind.