Welcome to Gaia! ::

Just getting philosophical for a moment. I'm curious as to the purpose of a Martial Philosophy. Obviously they exist in most Martial Styles, and I was wondering what some of you thought the purpose is?

Possibly using it through martial arts to relate to life in general. It is like.. having a tank, you can load it up with as much ammo you want, but if theres no driver (and I guess in this age, computer programs/software) Theres no direction. Am I close?

There really is and was no real purpose for martial philosophy, but does that mean that it's useless? Hell no. I agree what Jass said, but it's so much more than that. Yes, people were trained to basically kill people and martial philosophy's purpose was partly a justification of such (like in "The book of five rings" by Miyamoto Musashi), but it's also so much more.

Martial philosophy is, but is no limited to that. One could argue that Martial philosophy could be how one fights without killing, sort of a martial morality; although it's rarely been seen ages ago. It's being put into practice now, however. Is it mecause people are becoming more merciful? For some that may be the case, but not likely. Since the court system is in place and there are now two battles to be fought: one on the street and one in the courtroom. Having the plaintiff injured rather than dead is a good start in your defense. =p

Martial philosophy is also about strategy and technique, which, again, can be demonstrated in "the book of five rings" and by various Bruce Lee quotes. Anyone can throw a punch, but to throw one with such devastating force to knock your opponent out is something else.

Martial philosophy could also attribute to the Kung Fu philosophy that a complete warrior is not just a fighter, but also a scholar. Both in harmony creates the warrior, which is why the kung fu salutation is a closed fist pressed against the palm of an open hand. That said, Martial philosophy may not even be limited to battlefield philosophy. You can find average life applications in various martial arts philosophies.

Feh, I couldn't articulate myself as well as I wanted to. I'll edit this later.

This is a very open ended topic you could probably go on about it forever and never touch every ones angle and take on the subject.

Here's my view on it.

I feel that martial philosophy was created by the polititions and diplomats of the martial arts to take away some of the savagery and brutality from the arts of war.

I feel it is very necessary for the philosophy to exist because it keeps us civilised and allows us to question and analise ourselves and others as artists, warriors and above all human beings.

Now here's the problem that I have with martial philosophy. I feel that it the martailist side the the arts no matter what style you train in should always dominate and that philosophy should always be there but only to compliment the combatitive side so that we understand the consquences of our actions etc.

Unfortunately the philosophy is now dominating the majority of the martial artists out there and to much enphasis (sp) is spent on philosophy and not the martialist element. How many times have you seen an instructor or another high ranking martial artisit talk about how great they are or have effective their art is and blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. When it comes to walking the walk or stepping onto the proverbial mat they make an excuse or hide behind their philosophy.

As we all know (or bloody well should know) this is one of the biggest problems with the McDojos that are springing up around the planet. (aside from the fact that they seem to give out black belts like people give out contraseptives at freshers fares). Too many instructors are hiding behind the philosophy of the Martial Arts and their students are lapping it up because they are obsessed by the mystic of the martial arts which was spawned by philosopy in the first place. And the trouble is that the instructors probably don't know any better because they were taught the same way by their instructors. The blind are leading the blind and this will continue.

The biggest concern and beef that I have about this is that people are being taught "self defence" which will probably get them killed if they ever had to use it in real life. Unfortunately the truth about self defence is not a happy one and the brutal honesty that these people so badly need to hear conflict with everything that they have ever been taught.

The only thing that we can do is spread the word and hope that these people will listen and take on board what is being said.

Well, scratching the surface of emotional content... I believe that it is important to have a pattern of thinking to govern over these said emotions... as they can be somewhat involuntary at times. I feel the philosophical element to Martial Arts goes beyond that of Politicians and Diplomats as the philosophies were apparent before those governing bodies. Relating back to emotional content, emotions can make or break a technique despite the level of mastery over that said technique. More often than not, the philosophies behind said styles or techniques are created by those whom develop them. Within Jeet Kune, Iai, and other forms of Martial Arts, developing the mindless mind is often key in performing the perfect technique... one that reacts without hesitation, conformance, and can not be duplicated. This is the ultimate goal of JKD (hence the term, "be formless"), one has to be able to program emotions and feelings, thus controlling them and eliminating the initial involuntary aspect of them. This is why I believe Martial Philosophy is prevalent because it sets a structured pattern of thinking within a practioner's mind, thus enabling them to control said emotions.

just some thoughts...

I can agree with that, however I do not believe that it is limited to the style of the art. I believe that this is a smaller part of the bigger picture, being that you are doing the physical version of whatever the said philosophy is. Even still, epople tend to add ideas, thus changing the original idea.... so I don't think that the philosophy could be limited to only that, not saying thats what you implied.

Lol, my light sabre skills are greater than yours...
Oh and according to the 2001 UK census I am a Jedi xd

I find your lack of faith disturbing.