PHILOSOPHY IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION
History
* Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, believed physical education was beneficial to every citizen and consequently also the state. Aristotle saw physical education as more than an activity alone. It was an important part in the development of a man's character.
Plato, another Greek philosopher, said in his Laws that physical education is an activity and experience that begins before you are born.
Theories/Speculation
* Plato believed the mother is responsible for the child's physical education while the child is still in the womb. He advised pregnant women to walk around, as all the movement leads to good health and beauty in the child.
After the child actually starts his academic life at Plato's idealistic school, Plato envisioned him contesting many sporting events until he reaches age 18. Then the child applies himself completely for two or three years to physical or military training.
Benefits
* Jean Jacques Rousseau concluded physical education was necessary to achieve a strong body. For Rousseau, physical education explained the benefit of exercise and a strict diet, which allowed you to live a healthy life. For Socrates, the benefits of physical education lay in its ability to help avoid illness. Socrates did not propose a difficult or abstract form of physical education. To have a healthy, functioning and beautiful body, Socrates maintained that it was as important to have a capable intellectual capacity and a just soul as it was to partake in physical education.
* Five Traditional Philosophies
* Idealism
* Idealism centers on the mind as critical to understanding, since only through reasoning and mental processes can truth emerge. The roots of idealism come from Greece by way of such people as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Never-changing ideals, not things, constitute the ultimate reality. Idealist stress that only the reflective and intuitive individual can arrive at truth.
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