My philosophy of human movement course was one in which I had pretty low expectations for coming into it. I thought that it was just going to be a boring, meaningless class that everyone has to take within the kinesiology major at California State University, Fullerton. Little did I know then, but this class has become my favorite class of this spring 2014 term, and it is quite possibly my favorite class that I have taken at CSUF so far. We covered a lot of material during the sixteen week semester, with my favorite concepts being the idea and study of ethics and the idea of holism. The in-depth study of philosophy can be very demanding and challenging for some students, for one really needs to take an introspective look at themselves and their own lives to be able to read and analyze what they experience in the outside world. This not only goes for the field of kinesiology and human movement, but for life as a whole as well. The great thing here though is that so much of our lives deal with human movement so I now feel that this provides a great platform for presenting this challenging material to students. A perfect quote that I found in the book states that “philosophy requires us to go beyond facts; it relies on judgment, discernment, and a kind of reflective vision that extracts something interesting or useful” (Kretchmar, 2005, p. 5). This relates well my point and really emphasizes what philosophy is all about.
http://medicineanddeath.weebly.com/philosophical-lens.html
I believe that the most important aspect that I have learned in this class is that things need to be looked at through a philosophical lens. I believe this because without this philosophical lens, importance and meaning can and would be lost along with all of the other nonsensical information that is pumped out to us every day by the media or other people that we interact with. We cannot simply take what we hear or see to be truth. We need to be able to examine what we encounter on a daily basis with an intelligent philosophical lens, putting meaning and importance into what we experience. Krethcmar reinforces this thought when he states that “professional recommendations and personal decisions must be based on the best thinking we can produce today” (p. 39). If we all wandered around aimlessly without caring about what was going around us, our world would be in complete disarray. I think that being able to examine things both introspectively and with intelligent thought make for a much richer, interesting existence. I personally know that I want to live in a world where the status-quo is routinely challenged by society. Asking the hard questions and challenging things, people, or ideas leads to improvement. This sort of “competition” leads to increased performance. This is clearly and concisely represented on a smaller level in professional athletics. The new guy comes in and performs well, causing every other athlete on the team to elevate their playing level.
http://www.maartensz.org/philosophy/why_philosophy_is_important.htm
Looking at things through a philosophical lens also helps with creating the best rationale and ideas on a given subject. It allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of what they are experiencing, along with a certain level of respect that goes along with their increased understanding. Using a philosophical lens to experience things in life leads to a much abundant existence, where one can put meaning to the things that occur in their life. So much nonsense is broadcast by the media that it is hard to discern between fact and opinion. There is also an immense amount of information that is being put out in today’s society that it is hard to choose what we take in. Regardless, it is much easier to sift through said information if one approaches with a philosophical lens. It is my hope that others can adopt this approach and change the way that they go about traversing this difficult game called life. I believe that every person can benefit from this approach, no matter what stage of life they are in. It will make the world a better place while also hopefully cutting down on all of the nonsense that is broadcast by the media on a daily basis. It must become a priority for people to look at the world through a philosophical lens, for Kretchmar asserts that “prioritization is unavoidable in life” (p. 211).
http://www.philoscifi.com/wisdom/on-philosophy/why-is-philosophy-important
While this course has been pretty demanding on my already busy schedule, I truly believe now that it is worthwhile for a kinesiology student within the major. If nothing else, this course is the reason why I created and am currently writing this blog. I probably would have never had the inclination to create a blog otherwise, but I am really glad that I decided to do it. So while creating this blog is not the most valuable thing that I have learned in this course, it is definitely one of the many very valuable things that I have learned in the course.
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