Mindfulness and Madness in Martial Arts Philosophy
Paul Bowman
Chapter from the book: Bowman, P. 2019. Deconstructing Martial Arts.
Part of
Chapter from the book: Bowman, P. 2019. Deconstructing Martial Arts.
The connections between Eastern martial arts and (embodied) philosophy are strong. Often ideas and associations involve images of calm detachment and tranquillity. This chapter deconstructs these images and the ways they function in contemporary discourses. It explores a range of connections and associations, from ideas of Zen Buddhist meditation to contemporary mindfulness and from Samurai to kamikaze themes as they have related to various kinds of militarism and also the explicit outlook of Norwegian mass-murdered Anders Behring Breivik. It does so in order to demonstrate the ideological, political and ethical complexity (indeed, undecidability) of martial arts discourse vis-à-vis serenity, psychopathy, sanity and insanity.
Bowman, P. 2019. Mindfulness and Madness in Martial Arts Philosophy. In: Bowman, P, Deconstructing Martial Arts. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/book1.g
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Published on June 24, 2019