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'I can imagine that my body does not exists.
I cannot imagine that my mind does not exist.
Therefore, my mind is not my body' Descrates Rene
The above quotation reflects one of the most vital worries of humanity. All of us sometime in our life have think of the relationship that exists among our bodies and minds. A question that its answer differs from one time period to another but always based on the fact that human being is the most incredible creature on the earth. The development over the years that people have done is absolutely fantastic. During the first appearance of the human being and until now the shape of the human body has changed. Furthermore the human mind has improved significantly. As a result of those two components human being has improve his status in relationship to the other creatures, and has became the master of the planet earth. But there is a connection between mind and body or they absolutely separated? Additional does the separation of body and mind is a good for the image of sport?
The philosophical idea of separation between mind and body is known as dualism. In other words dualists believed that there are two basic kinds of things in the universe, the mind and the physical objects. Ancient Greek civilization is the primary source for the philosophical and historical forces that helped as to shape the western civilization. Plato (427-347 B.C.) was the first who divided the nature of reality into two parts, body and mind (dualism). Plato was student of Socrates. Socrates before Plato believed that body is evil and hinders the mind from acquiring truth. But after the death of Socrates, Plato support that body and mind are separate but if body and mind were developed, then they can reach the optimum potential. At the same period (between 500-450 B.C.) Athenians had the development of the body in great respect and the position of a health athlete was at the top of the society pyramid. Furthermore Athenians believed that harmonious development of the body, mind and spirit was one of the most important aspects of life. After the end of the great Greek ancient civilization a new powerful empire came in to the light. The great Roman Empire gave emphasis on the body. That was the period that strong man, most of them slaves (gladiators), had to fight for their life against lions and excellent armed soldiers. The Colosseum was the venue that the slaves had to fight for their lives. At the beginning of 1000 A.D. church strongly emphasize the importance of the soul. Additionally, the church due to the fact that religion is grounded in faith and believes and not on logical aspects supported the separation between body and mind. At the 18th century the Italian humanist Vittorino da Faltre (real name was Vittorino Ramboldini) suggest that the human body (mind and body) is well rounded. Vittorino da Feltre and other humanist educators reissued in 1970. At the end of the 19th century a new theory appeared to the proscenium. Puritans, during that period suggested that the body is for work. That point of view was evolutionary and created lots of assertions. At the end of last millennium the evolution of the science was the reason for the sudden alternation from the spiritual world to secular world. Things are now more logical for the human mind and based on that fact a new science Sport Science- was introduced (figure 1.1)
Before we refer to the nature of dualism, is quite important to define the differences between person and body. To start with, person is any entity that has the moral right of self-determination. On the other hand, body is something that is capable to move or stay stationary. Body consists from cells, organs (heart, lungs, etc) bones, vessels, etc. Dualists supported that the body is one well-done machine. It uses fuels for movement and requires periodically maintenance as the machines do.
As we mention before dualism is a philosophical school that supports the separation of mind and body. Additionally supporters of the dualism theory believed that no amount of knowledge of the human brain or the rest of the human body would give full understanding of the human mind. Although the entire philosophers that supported the dualism do not exist, the theory its self has many followers until our times. Dualism is divided into four categories: a) Objective dualism which supports that the body differs from the mind. b) Value dualism, which supports that body guided by the mind. c) Behavior dualism, which supports that body involved not thinking. d) Language dualism, which supports that body processor of nonverbal symbols. (Figure 1.2). It is obviously that philosophers who believed in dualism had slight different opinions for the exact definition of dualism.
Before we examine every category of dualism in relation with the sport we must define sport. As a word, sport is a modern term first use in England around 1440 A.D. The origins of the word sport, or its etymology, are Latin or French. In French the word desporter has its roots in the Latin world deportate, which means amuse oneself over the years the term change from merely amusing oneself to a term that was used extensively throughout England that meant competition in the form of game and individual exploits as well as hunting. But how sport interacts with dualism and how dualism effects on sport?
The first category of dualism is the objective dualism. The idea of objective dualism is that human being is composed from two parts. The first is the mind and the second is the body. Ren Descartes (1596-1650) was one of the most positive supporters of the objective dualism. He believed that is very hard to imagine how a material structure such as a brain can produce thinking and feeling. His thinking had the following flow. I can imagine that me body and the hole physical word does not exist I can not imagine that me mind does not exist so I can imagine away from my body but I cannot imagine away from my mind therefore there is a basic difference between me body and my mind-. Some how the two elements (body-mind) can interact. For example, the mind can give orders to the hand how to hit the volleyball and the hand always obeys. Sport experts at that point believed that the key point on how well the hand will hit the ball is the practice and how well the limp (hand) coordinate with the brain. On the other hand not only the brain can affect the body but also the body can affect the brain. For example when an athlete is injured. The injured part of the body sends signals to the brain and then the brain send pain signals to the injured part. We can highlight at this point that objective dualism has an element of true. Body has to obey on some physicals rules (gravity, resistance etc). Therefore the body operates like a machine.
The second category of dualism is the value dualism. Value dualism suggests that mind is superior to the body. Plato (427-347) was the first who stated that mind is superior to the body. The base of Plato though was that mind is absolutely not depended, something that does not occur with the body. All thoughts that we do cannot always pass to our body. For example, an injured athlete who have the desire to play he can imagine him self to score but the physical condition (injury) does not let his to execute his thoughts. Many times in sports we use a number of commons phrases such as: my emotions are my biggest enemy in sport or the key to be successful in sport is to think more and react less. The last one is not quite true because trough scientific experiments (psychomotor learning and performance) on some sport event the less you think the greater the percentage for success. So again the scientists believe that the mind (thoughts) does not always play a vital role on the sport successful.
The third category of dualism is known as behavior dualism. The central concept of behavior dualism does not have similarities with the two firsts categories of dualism that we mentioned before. The aim of behavior dualism is not to define body and mind or to declare which of those two (body and mind) is superior. The theory of behavior dualism supports that the mind thinks and then the body executes. For example, before the basketball player executes a drill he must first plan the movement on his mind. That kind of planning is done in some millisecond. On the other hand, when a chess player thinks the next movement the duration of the thinking and planning the movement may take a few minutes or an hour. So, the time of thinking depends on the time that the athletes have to complete successfully the task. In other words, when the sport depends on thinking (golf, chess, snooker etc) you can hear the following phrases: think first, play second or you moved without thinking. On the other hand when the sport does not depend on thinking (table tennis, 100m running etc) you might hear one of the following phrases: I dont want to think, I want just to react or once you start to play the game, quit thinking. Apart from the two previous categories there is one more that is lie between those two. Some games like football depend on thinking and reacting. For example, when the midfield has the ball at the middle of the pitch he has the time to think the best possible passing. On the other hand, when the striker is opposite the opponent goalkeeper he must react without thinking to score the goal. So again some times the mind gives the orders and the body follows and some other times the body just react.
The fourth category of dualism is known as language dualism. Language dualism supports that language is the most important factor of learning. We can think because we can put words in the right order and make sentences that will give us the thoughts. For that reason we are different from the animals. For example, monkeys can move better than us and they can solve simple problems but they cannot grow their intelligent because they do not have the ability to express their thoughts, if they have any. Language dualism supports that the verbal language is the way that people use in order to learn how to communicate and understand each other. Furthermore, when people have rich vocabulary is easier to learn and their positioning in the society is higher than those people who cannot use a large number of worlds to express their selves. The range of movement and the harmony of movement that some people can reach is not the way of development according to the language dualism. But there are lots of times that a movement or a grimace from someone can make us to understand lot of things. An other very important evidence that the verbal symbols are not the only way of learning is that ability that deaf have to learn through hand and head movements. They can increase their knowledge only through movements of their body (hand movements).
So, dualism is a philosophical view for the human development through time. Lots of philosophers gave different opinions about the dualism and the interaction within the human body. The result of that was to give a fuzzy image to the whole picture of the knowledge and development of the human kind. The base of Sport from its first appearance was the development of human body and mind. From the ancient years and until our period sport has a unique place in our society. Of course sport have developed and have been complicated because more factors have added to the whole idea (economical, commercial etc). But this is not a reason that can destroy the ideal structure that sport has. In ancient period the glory was the superior chase from the athletes. From that period and until know society have done big steps of developments. Sport followed that developments and for that reason it took one of the most important role in our society. Now through sport people can gain moral and gear goods. Additionally they can gain heartsease. Most of the human beings on this planet are involved with a kind of sport. Why? The reason is simple because they feel closer to each other and because they find ways to express their fillings and believes. An evidence of that is that every society has developed a different kind of sport, trying to find ways for communication and development between its members. But that does not stop there, other societies with entirely different cultures have welcome and adopt a strange sport for them because they only want to learn about new cultures and simple to come closer to other people. So sports unite people from every part of the earth and build the personality of the simple athlete to the elite athlete. Sport is one of the fewer elements that follow the human history until now and is going to follow it until its end.
Dualism is a theory that believes on separation of things and that one element depends on the other. Separation is not the ideal theory for development. Development depends of the harmony of the nature. Coordination finally is the key of expansion something that dualism denied. United is the theory of sport as a result dualism is not good for the image of sport.
REFERENCES
R. Scott Kretchmar, 1994. Practical philosophy of sport. USA: by R. Scott
Kretchmar
Robert A. Mechikoff, Steven G. Estes, 1998. A history and philosophy of sport
and physical education from ancient civilization to the modern world. 2nd ed.
USA: WCB/McGraw-Hill Company
Adams Morton, 1998. Philosophy in practice an introduction to the main
questions. Great Britain: Alden press, Oxford
Earle F. Zeigler, 1998. History of physical education and sport. USA: Stipes
Publishing company
Great philosophical encyclopedia [on line] available from:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/vi/VittorinF.html [accessed: 14-12-00]
Figure 1.1: Robert A. Mechikoff, Steven G. Ester, A history and philosophy of sport and physical education, p7, 1998. 2nd edition
Figure 1.2: R. Scott Kretchmar, practical philosophy of sport, p37, 1994. 1st edition
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