Kinesiology and Nutritional Science Cal. State LA Cal. State LA Kinesiology and Nutritional Science College of HHS
Chapter 8: Philosophical Positions of the Body and the Development of Physical Education: Contributions of the Germans, Swedes, and Danes in Nineteenth-Century Europe
Chapter Outline
ıChapter 8's outlines is in part a reproduction and in part a modification and expansion of original lecture notes by Dr. Steve Estes, California State University, Fullerton.
Mechikoff, R., & Estes, S. (1998). A history and philosophy of sport and physical education: From the ancient Greeks to the present (2nd ed.). Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
I. Philosophy of Idealism
A. Traced back to work of Socrates & Plato
1. Idealism has "competed" with the proponents of naturalism since ancient times.
a. Naturalism - All events, both human and natural, share the same character and can be explained as a process inherent in nature; nature is reliable and dependable.
B. The Philosophy of Idealism with regard to the philosophical position of the body and corresponding epistemological beliefs (views about the nature of knowledge) are very significant to physical education.
II. Idealism
A. Idealists have focused their energy and effort to investigate three specific topics:
  • The existence of God
  • The self
  • Knowledge
B. These three components of Idealism make up the fabric of metaphysical inquiry; God and self, and the epistemological position - " how we come to know things."
C. Must understand - These three components of investigation are not limited to the philosophy of Idealism, but form the basic tenets of all schools of philosophy.
D. According to Idealism, Reality is mind.
1. Idealists believe that the entire universe is "that" which can be conceived or imagined by the mind.
a. Further elaboration - What the mind or spirit experiences and perceives as real is essential and authentic.
  • The world of material objects, as argued by Thomas Hobbes, is secondary to the "reality" conceived by the mind.
  • Belief of Idealists - The world we actually exist in is an imperfect world.
  • However, our mind is able to visualize or conceive of a PERFECT WORLD, which according to Idealism, also must exist and is real."
  • To the Idealist, the fact that we have an IDEA of a perfect world is evidence that it exists.
  • Use of Logic is essential to make Idealism work. Example - Since the idea is conceived by the mind, Idealistic Logic dictates that in all probability it exists because Reality is Mind.
E. The mind
  • The mind is composed of a spiritual quality.
  • Since the mind is spiritual, ultimate reality is BEYOND the phenomenal, sensor and material world.
  • TWO different philosophical views in Idealism:
    (1) Metaphysical Idealism
    (2) Epistemological Idealism
a. Metaphysical Idealism
  • Analyzes the universe as a psychic or mental reality
  • Believe that all "things" that exist in the universe are linked by an IDEAL element that can be logically deduced.
  • Plato, St. Augustine, and to a lesser degree Aristotle believed in metaphysical idealism.
a. like most metaphysical inquiry, the facts or evidence in support of their positions are obtained through deductive and subjective logic (Try some deductive logic exercises).
b. The deductive and subjective approach of metaphysical idealism delights the skeptics of metaphysical idealism
c. Epistemological Idealism
1. Approaches the study and actual "identification" of reality with mentally knowable data which are perceptible truths.
2. Whatever is "out there" beyond our mind, all we can know is what is in our minds.
III The Self
1. Is the Self a certainty?
a. Refer back to Descartes to prove "self" is certainty.
b. The reality of the self
c. Doubt, using Descartes as an example, because the ability to "doubt" is one of the most direct routes to discovering the SELF
2. How did Descartes support the philosophy of Idealism?
In his classic statement, "I think, therefore I am," Descartes' "self" was mindful activity, thereby confirming the logic of Idealism that REALITY IS MIND.
IV. On Knowledge
Idealism makes the statement that understanding the nature of knowledge will logically clarify the nature or reality. In other words, ideals that are accepted as true and authentic must be derived from evidence. The evidence can be established by the process of logic using both inductive and deductive reasoning. Like anything else, the initial data that our sensory experiences provide us must be interpreted and validated as authentic and true or unreliable and inaccurate. Earle F. Zeigler describes truth for the Idealist: Truth for idealists is orderly and systematic. A test for truth is its coherence with knowledge that has been previously established. An individual, therefore, attains truth for himself by examining the wisdom of the past through his own mind. Everything that exists has a relationship to something else that exists and is intertwined. Reality, viewed in this way, is a system of logic and order -- a logic and order that has been established by the Universal mind. Experimental testing helps to determine what the truth really is with the chips falling where they may.
The German Idealists
  • The Idealist believes that the world and universe are primarily spiritual, spiritual being part of the "perfect world."
  • Pure Idealists do not believe in evolution as portrayed by Charles Darwin
    a. Humans are composed of more than the corporeal; they have a soul
    b. The "soul" places humans above all other creatures
  • The soul is the "link" to the spiritual nature of reality. Ultimate reality to an idealist is SPIRITUAL.
Bishop George Berkeley (Irish, 1685-1753)
a. "The world has meaning because our minds are able to discern it."
b. "Because worldly-material experience allows us, through the Mind, to assimilate and extract quality and meaning from our existence, something must exist that actually provides the elements of quality and meaning."
c. Berkeley said this Something is the Universal Mind, or God that provides quality and meaning as a process.
d. Ever the Idealist, Berkeley believes that reality is mind, a Universal Mind.
The German Idealists did not necessarily base their belief in ultimate ideals with a traditional Western belief in God.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Kant's writings are very complex and at times difficult to understand
Kant published his first major book at age 57 - Critique of Pure Reason: Theory of Knowledge
  • Conscious reason is the catalyst for all of our experience
  • It is our conscious experience (mind) that provides unity and order.
  • The world is represented (not presented) to us by way of our physical senses and the sensory input we receive.
  • Sensations are chaotic and, therefore, unrelated.
  • Kant believes that these sensations we perceive are manufactured and caused by "something out there."
  • It is the act or mechanism of the mind-conscious thought that can actually describe and order these sensations into perceptible components (images) of space and time.
According to Kant:
  • We can link and, therefore, unify our sensory input by placing sensations in time and space and categorizing them, which is made possible, by mindful activity (consciousness).
  • As a result, we will catalog these sensations as reliable or unreliable.
  • Knowledge and reason constitute an interactive process that in general has its origins and direction from the mind towards the world (interactive), not from the world toward the mind (passive).
  • Must "reason" through issues, questions, etc.
"Thing in Itself"
So great and omnipresent it defies our knowledge and, therefore, can never be known; infinite being. Humans are finite, therefore, are not able to comprehend or understand something that is infinite.
Kant bases his belief in God on moral grounds, not supernatural existence.
Kant's Five Beliefs
How does Kant's Categorical Imperative relate to Phys. Ed. and Sport
Sportsmanship and moral conduct in sport
Teach humanistic qualities espoused by Kant
Johann Fichte
1. Concentrated on ethical writings that challenged humans.
2. Believed that the phenomenal world we live in was actually designed to nurture and develop the "will" of men and women thus bringing their character into being.
3. Believed, unlike Kant, that the "thing in itself" was knowable.
4. Evil is necessary. Why?
Catalyst for awakening the human spirit and spurring it to achievement. Relationship to nature (man's) would be too soothing and comfortable - therefore, the human spirit would never achieve without the presence of evil. Human spirit and PE? "Health of the body is essential to vigor of the mind and spirit development of the "self"
Idealism -- Big association between mind, body and spirit. PE has benefited by the philosophy of idealism re: philosophy position of the body - Idealism demands a healthy and fit body for each person to reach his/her full potential. The mind would be at a disadvantage without a healthy and fit body.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1. Consummate idealist - reason could fathom all aspects of human experience, even ultimate reality!
2. Hegel who was heavily influenced by Baruch Spinoza had a profound influence on Karl Marx
3. Places the physical corporeal world as a limited or finite idea Bottom of his hierarchy, however, believed that ultimate realities that affected man must be within the realm of man's reason to comprehend them.
  • body is inferior to mind and spirit.
4. Assigned a greater value to the ability of humans to "know things" than Kant and other Idealists.
Idealism and Application to Physical Education
1. To develop the SELF includes development of the body
a. Idealism embraces and supports the inclusion of PE
2. The nature of idealism enables us to arrive at an opinion of what all that is Good embraces.
a. the "ideal good" can be based on
1. religious beliefs
2. moral duty or obligation
3. Within the educational process, Idealists believe that growth will occur through self-activity.
a. According to Idealism, the ultimate responsibility to learn is within the self

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