Bodidharma says martial arts is like philosophy, if you wish to observe, you must observe the movements of your opponent and your reactions.
Philosophy is like the mind, and martial arts is like mind and body. To become fearless, not fearing death, not fearing to accomplish your dreams, not fearing what one gotta say. And what is to be fear is political power and God.
there is but only one law which is the law of self. One seeks what his advantages, study and to decieve.
If martial arts is not philosophy, then what can you do with philosophy?
Be like those blinded people who just memorize theories? A philosopher I heard of is a lover of wisdom, yet I see students questions themselves what are they going to do with philosophy, therefore, these people are not true philosophers.
I agree. To merely absorb like a sponge is not philosophy. Quoting someone is like squeezing the sponge. You are getting out what you just picked up, there is nothing new or learned. You can compare philosophy to many skills not just martial arts. Now taking facets from all and playing with them, rolling them around and creating new plausable theories, expanding them, asking new thoughts in new ways or old thoughts in new ways, that is philosophy.
I believe you can compared anything with philosophy. Isn’t philosophy is this universal thing or mind?
But being more specific , most philosophy majors goes to law school, because they doubt and follow the rest of the other sheeps believe in and abandon the orginal purpose for taking philosophy in the first place.
If this is not true, why did people began the study of philosophy, and how does choosing profession affect the person?
I think to better understand this, is to be this next level or degree of self.
Perhaps a self black belt in philosophy rather a phd philosophy.
The belt is gained when, for instance, an artical by you published in the American Philosophical Journal that effectively refuted the cosmology of, say, Richard Rorty. You usually need a PHd to get your artical published in the first place. Where there are contention, there provides a stage for life. A professional philosopher lives as a gladiator of the collosium of mind, as an artist who pain the universe and composes the symphony in words and concepts. The amateur philosopher seeks no such cotention, philosophy for him serves to his understanding of events in life, also his latest existential developments.
Martial Arts and Philosophy seem very similar to me-my brain feels like it’s getting the same kind of excersize whether I’m contemplating Thomas Reid or the applications of some new body movement I’ve learned. I think the connection is that they are both very fundamental to the human condition- abstract thought, and violence (or fitness, if you prefer to think of martial arts that way) are both at the very core of what it means to be human.
Also they both have room for infinite growth and development, and they are both somewhat seperated from everyday life nowadays- they are things we do purely for our own enrichment, not for any practical gain. I would be curious to know if someone who trains in the martial arts because they actually use them to stay alive still thinks of them as being like a philosophy, or if they think of in a more ‘blue collar’ sense- once it’s practical, it’s much more like fixing a car, or perhaps de-boning a turkey.
I agree as well. Philosophy is essential to the existence of martial arts. Like philosophy, martial arts has many systems or schools of thought on how to approach the defense and offense of the body. I most admire Bruce Lee more as a philosopher than as a martial artist, as he advocated no form as form through his Jeet Kun Do… wonderful method of fighting. He was brilliant in making the observation that true martial art at its heart is found through change and that each individual must strive to adapt and change to find their own personal style of fighting. I myself cound not imagine being able to move as fast as Lee, but I can at least reflect and agree with his philosophy.
Thank you for posting this topic… it has reminded me to pick up on Lee’s philosophy once more… =D>