I agree with Ninthdrunk.
When I started taking martial arts, my intent was to be able to defend myself first and foremost. Now I haven't gotten into any fights for several years now, but the training has boosted my confidence to the point where I can focus on other aspects of life (philosophical or otherwise) without the constant underlying fear of getting my ass kicked by somebody with too much testosterone in their system. I think that's where the conception of martial arts being of a spiritual/philosophical path as well as physical evolved into the current frame of mind.
Look at bowing. Originally, bowing was meant to show a sign of respect and thus a tool to avoid confrontation and hurt feelings. Now bowing can mean a number of things, either respect for the teacher, the form you're about to do or even as a habit to get the practioner's frame of mind into focusing while doing the form.
The west's infatuation with eastern monks has been around since the Shaolin temples were first introduced to western society. Look at it from the viewpoint of someone who isn't familiar with anything from Asian society, and has no clue who Buddha is. You have a bunch of bald guys that wear orange pajamas and live in an exotic temple, and all day they either sit in weird positions with their eyes closed, do some humming and fly around like acrobats doing all kinds of crazy moves. How can Western society NOT associate the philosophy with the martial?
Nowadays, we have access to the history of martial arts in China and we know (those of us that bother to do the research), that not all incarnations of kung fu had anything to do with anything outside of fighting, but the way I see it, that doesn't nor shouldn't mean that the student of any style of kung fu should drop the philosophical teachings (if any) that they learn from their sifu. If it floats your boat then go with it.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke