Should Fighters read Philosohy

[Martin2]

Hi All,

just saw yesterday a great film: The Twilight Samurai

There was a dialogue. The samurai asked his little daughter to learn the Confucius.

So she asked: "If I learn to do needlework, someday I can make kimonos. But what good will book learning ever do to me?"

Samurai: "Well, it probably won't ever be as useful as needlework. But you know ... Book learning gives you power. The power to think. However the world might change, if you have the power to think, you'll always survive somehow. That's true for boys and girls."

One can't express my feeling about the question if martial artists should read Philosophy better. Especially in Tai Chi Chuan we prepare for the change - by thinking.

Martin

[Areios]

defenetly! Philosophy i not part of any MA. (i mean you can learn it without) But it will change your world that's sure. (in a positive way)

[internalenthusiast]

yes.

[RobP2]

Yes - and philosophers should fight! I'll take that Stephen Hawkins on any day!

PS a computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing

[Darthwing Teorist]

Why fighters specifically? Should anybody read philosophy?

[mrtoes]

I personally find it hard to integrate philosophy (of the Plato, Aristotle, Nietzche variety) into my daily life, but then I'm not much of an academic. At my level I really can't see how philosophy would help my martial arts. I'd much rather spend my time practising how to relax, and how to fight, or at least some reasonable approximation. Maybe when I'm a badass ninja it will be different

[SPJ]

we all think one way or another. that is what makes us human or different from other animals.

a brain (thinking) and 2 hands (labor or to do) that make our civilization or we advance over time.

LEER SIN MEDITAR

ES UNA OCUPACION INUTIL.

learning without thinking is labor lost.

Xue Er Bu Si Ze Dai.

学而不思则殆

Si Er Bu Xue Ze Fei

思而不学则废

thinking without learning is labor wasted.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ki6iZ4ZUs&NR=1

[SPJ]

it is a difficult question to answer

the answer would be that we have to analyse or think about what we learn

so that the learning becomes our own

just as if we eat some food, we have to digest it or break it down to smaller units/molecules, our body then absorbs the nutrients and makes proteins of our own etc or assimilates it into our body.


--

Kong Fu Zi was a great thinker and not the inventor of confusion.

--

most important of all, his thinking may be learned from dialogues between him and his students. there were many questions and answers.

--

KFZ proposed the ideal society and how a country may be runned, it is Li.

even thou, his ideas were not acceptted during his life time. however, his thinking or THOUGHTS greatly influenced Chinese culture even today.

---

labor is not a good translation, may be effort is better.

--

on the other hand, if we think too much without learning some more facts or experiencing more life, then the thinking is limited

--

which means we have to study a lot, travel a lot or experience life a lot

and we have to think a lot

which was what KFZ did, he travelled among 6 kingdoms. He taught a lot students.

---

etc etc

so thinking and learning are both important.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Cuz8_P ... re=related

[Josealb]

Martin, fantastic piece of film. Be sure to check out its brother under the same director, The Hidden Blade.

[RickMatz]

Philosophy practiced is the goal of learning.
- Thoreau

[dragontigerpalm]

Do you live to fight or do you fight to live. If you live to fight then reading philosophy or anything else for that matter is hardly necessary. But if you fight to live - to protect yourself and others - then any and all that enriches your life and the lives of others is what defines you and gives meaning to the life (lives) you fight to protect.

[Kurt Robbins]

Depends on what you mean by philosophy.
I apply strategies from a lot of sources, my primary being Sun Tzu and I use it in graplling and Muay Thai.
If you mean getting strategy from Philosophy, then whats the problem?
If your asking from a humanistic approach to human quality, definatly.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Cuz8_P ... re=related

I am not making fun of Miss Panama.

It is a difficult question even for a Chinese speaker.