the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

No. Fighters shouldn't read philosophy. It just makes 'em walk around with stupid, confused looks on their faces...

REEL FITERS CANT REED!!!!!!!

Does one need to read to be a philosopher?

In China, the main work in Philosophy was done in discussion.

So may be as a sportsman - boxing, wrestling, ultimate fighting - one does not need philosophy, but in Chinese martial arts history, a lot of masters were man of thinking.

But anyway - some fun:



Greetings

Martin2

There is a topic to this debate, which I am missing: Responsibility. If one learns a Chinese Martial Art, one learns techniques to seriously hurt or kill a person. With this ability comes a lot of questions for oneself:

Do I want to hurt and kill people in self defense?
Do I want to defend other people?
Do I want to go out into the world and fight for justice?
Who do I want to train this with or teach it?
and so on.

These are all philosophical questions and it can be worth to read in the books about answers given a long tiem ago to it. Here, I think, nothing is new.

Martin2

i tot this was about adding sass, poetry, panache to the challenges/insults we issue, so we make our opponent look like utter caveman right of the bat.... er sorry my bad

There does seem to be an assumption though that philosophy/spirituality is ethereal and not practical. Granted that can be the case with the "worst" kinds but practical philosophy is something else and is generally something a fighter / warrior / whateveryouwanttocallit has, either inherent or acquired. Perhaps continued brushes with the big guy with the scythe instills that in people?

Most of the best CMA guys didn't have much education. A scholar trains how to use his mind. A fighter trains how to use his body. When you take a school exam, you can skip question #1 and go to question #2 if you don't have the answer for Q1. You may come back to Q1 after you have finished all other questions. When someone stabs his knife at your chest, you have only one chance. There is a big difference between scholar training and combat training.

"CMA is for doing and not for talking".

"Should fighters read philosophy"? Maybe the question should be, will philosophy make your fighting or MA ability and skill better?

Do you need to read the Yi Jing to become a better fighter if you train in Baguazhang? No! Do you need to read the Yi Jing to fully understand the concepts in Baguazhang as a MA? No!

If you as a person will gain something of value from reading philosophy, it will benefit everything you do. We are not several persons, one person for different things we do, we are the same. MA is more about growth and personal development than anything else. How you fight and how you act before a threat will depend on your mind, not on your technical knowlegde nor strength.

The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao. However, if someone becomes very good at taijiquan or baguazhang, he might get some experiential understanding of the crazy stuff the Daoists talk about.

fighters, like anyone else can read what they want if they are able to read.

why not philosophy?

Hello Johnwang,

would love to see a fighter to train his body without using his mind.
Would love to see a good fighter without a good strategy.

Anyway, of course one can externalize the brain to his teacher or coach - but that sounds quite a bit boring to me - sorry - live as a martial artist can offer more - I think.

Regards and thanks for your post

Martin2

Darth Rock&Roll wrote:fighters, like anyone else can read what they want if they are able to read.

why not philosophy?

I prefer RSF but philosophy is ok too in small infrequent doses

Hi all,

I just read my first post and got this thought:

A lot of people say, a fighter will not get better by philosophy ... my post was not about that, or?

The samurai said and I translate know into martial arts:

Philosophy may not be as useful as martial arts techniques and wgives you the power to think. So if the world changes one will always survive.

Still a good argument I think.

For example, one is the top fighter in martial arts, but in a serious accident one loses the ability to fight, what now? Best is to be prepared and be able to change.

Or one is attacked by being stabed. MArtial arts is no insurence that one will survive, may be one try also the power to rhink to avoid the situation. No stab - no risk - sorry no hero - but heroes die young anyway.

Just some small thoughts

Martin2