Should martial arts ever be separated from philosophy?

[Scott R. Brown]

"Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true."

So far so good.....

...sort of....

....one holds the proposition or premise to be true, but does not KNOW it to be true!

"The relationship between belief and knowledge is that a belief is knowledge if the belief is true."

Now, not so good......belief is only knowledge if one knows that the belief is true, in which case it is no longer belief, it is knowledge!

As long as you believe something is true, but do not KNOW it is true, it is belief!

Once you KNOW it is true, it is knowledge, NOT belief!

But what do I know....I am just an IDIOT!!!

Even I can't tell the difference between the three IDIOT PHILOSOPHY links, and I posted them!!!

[taai gihk yahn]

If you can't tell the difference between all three videos then......

......YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!!!!

Welcome to the club! Glad to have ya!!!

where do I apply for my face-full of mud and boot to the noggin', please?

[Scott R. Brown]

where do I apply for my face-full of mud and boot to the noggin', please?

WOW!!!!

You are a natural!!!!!

You don't even know how to get a full-face of mud and boot to the noggin!

I'll bet you even like getting slapped up-side the face with a dead fish!!!

I'm nominating you to be the next IDIOT PRESIDENT at our next inter-national meeting......

.....if I ever find it!!

[SteveLau]

So, is there a place for philosophy in the martial arts? If so, is it an optional one?

- dw3041

To reply to the first post. My answer to both questions is Yes. Sure, there is a place for philosophy in martial arts. Some styles are philosophical based. Others do have philosophy in them to different degrees. It can be optional, and all technical too. The choice is on the founder and the heirs of the school of style.



Good luck,

KC
Hong Kong

[SteveLau]

So, is there a place for philosophy in the martial arts? If so, is it an optional one?

- dw3041

To reply to the first post. My answer to both questions is Yes. Sure, there is a place for philosophy in martial arts. Some styles are philosophical based. Others do have philosophy in them to different degrees. It can be optional, and all technical too. The choice is on the founder and the heirs of the school of style.



Good luck,

KC
Hong Kong

[Xutreck5601]

I think it depends on how you look at philosophy. You have on one hand, the very "Airy Fairy" way of thinking about things. Expressing your chi, and such. On the other hand philosophy is an EXCELLENT way of training your mind to understand situations. For instance the general principles of the main 5 punches in hsing yi. How each of them is presented with a relative element from chinese theory. Each punch is countered by a punch of a differen't energy and that energy happens to be named by the element that counters it in chinese theory. This is exceptionally helpful when trying to teach. I would even go as far as to say. (And this is coming from my EXCEPTIONALLY LIMITED martial experience) that the philosophy of marital arts is a great deal more useful in the teaching and learning of the art than in the practical application. Once you have it, its is very much muscle memory, you don't really have time to think anyways. But when explaining to another peer in class that the change from a yin to a yang palm creates certain energies, and that such an idea relates to the rest of the body, legs, shins, shoulders, ect. I am usually thankful that someone has laid out such mechanisms for passing on knowledge.

[KC Elbows]

I started with a cartesian view of it all: I hit, therefore I am. So far, so good. Then I tried to use that to prove the existence of God. It got a little dicey, so I went Sartre on it, I am, but I come to define myself in relation to someone else hitting me. From there, I ended up on a forum, and it got a bit Godot for a while, until a forum member of limited literacy pointed out that Godot is dead.