• Striking Beauty
1 1

Striking Beauty

$37.00
$37.00 $37.00
Sold out
Using the ethics and aesthetics of the Asian martial arts to enrich our knowledge of human behavior, bodily movement, technical knowledge, and artistic creation.
  • 04 August 2015
View Product Details

The first book to focus on the intersection of Western philosophy and the Asian martial arts, Striking Beauty comparatively studies the historical and philosophical traditions of martial arts practice and their ethical value in the modern world. Expanding Western philosophy's global outlook, the book forces a theoretical reckoning with the concerns of Chinese philosophy and the aesthetic and technical dimensions of martial arts practice.

Striking Beauty explains the relationship between Asian martial arts and the Chinese philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, in addition to Sunzi's Art of War. It connects martial arts practice to the Western concepts of mind-body dualism and materialism, sports aesthetics, and the ethics of violence. The work ameliorates Western philosophy's hostility toward the body, emphasizing the pleasure of watching and engaging in martial arts, along with their beauty and the ethical problem of their violence.

files/i.png Icon
Price: $37.00
Pages: 272
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Publication Date: 04 August 2015
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780231172721
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SPORTS & RECREATION / Martial Arts / General, RELIGION / Taoism (see also PHILOSOPHY / Taoist), PHILOSOPHY / Taoist, HISTORY / Asia / China, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
REVIEWS Icon
Striking Beauty presents a beautifully and forcefully written account of the philosophical background of martial arts in Eastern and Western traditions. At the same time, it also presents the author's vision of a contemporary philosophy, and phenomenology, of the martial arts and their aesthetic, somatic, and ethical dimensions. It is a ground-breaking and inspiring book that will appeal to everyone interested in the practice, theory, and history of martial arts.
Barry Allen is professor of philosophy at McMaster University; has held visiting appointments in Jerusalem, Istanbul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong; and is associate editor at the interdisciplinary journal Common Knowledge. His research concerns aesthetics, technology, the theory of knowledge, and Chinese philosophy. He is the author of Truth in Philosophy; Knowledge and Civilization; Artifice and Design: Art and Technology in Human Experience; and Vanishing into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition.

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Dao of Asian Martial Arts: Themes from Chinese Philosophy
2. From Dualism to the Darwinian Body: Themes from Western Philosophy
3. Power and Grace: Martial Arts Aesthetics
4. What a Body Can Do: Martial Arts Ethics
Epilogue: Martial Arts and Philosophy
Chinese–English Glossary
Notes
Index