THE EMBODIMENT OF SPORT: AN INQUIRY ON THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE HUMAN BODY AND THE SPORT WORLD

I-MIN LIU, Purdue University

Abstract

This study attempted to answer four research questions. The questions dealt with the appropriate methodology in exploring Merleau-Ponty's embodiment philosophy, the nature of the existential dialogue, the nature of the fleshly dialogue, and the possible foundation of the dialogical phenomenon of sport embodiment. This study maintained that Merleau-Ponty's embodiment philosophy was accomplished by reworking his earlier radical reflection of the dialectical relation between the lived body and the lived world. Through his "radicalization" of his earlier radical reflection, it is shown that Merleau-Ponty eventually developed a new notion of "flesh". This notion provided the ontological ground needed to justify his entire embodiment philosophy. An examination of Merleau-Ponty's earlier radical reflection enabled the writer to make thematic Merleau-Ponty's accounts of the dialectical relationship between the lived body and the lived world. This, in turn, called for interpreting the notion of "existential dialogue" to include the overall interchange of existential meanings between the lived body, other bodies, things, surrounding atmosphere, and the world on the level of pre-reflective and pre-objective experience. A careful delineation of an exemplar approach to the concrete sporting world experience confirmed the existential dialogue between the lived body and the lived world. An examination of Merleau-Ponty's notion "flesh" developed in his later radical reflection enabled the writer to make explicit Merleau-Ponty's implicit notions of the pre-body, the pre-world, and the fleshly dialogue between the pre-body and the pre-world. The fleshly dialogue is interpreted as the "flesh" interrogating and articulating, playing and dancing itself in the body and the world. In the fleshly dialogue, the athletes often feel possessed, are held spellbound and are in fusion with the world. This study had shown that the experience of fleshly dialogue in sport is frequently mentioned by individual athletes, shared collectively by some sport communities, studies by a good few academic researchers, and recorded in much popular and scholarly sport literature, even though it often comes by diverse terms or phrases. This study concluded that the proper foundation of sport embodiment requires taking the existential dialogue between the lived body and the lived world as well as the fleshly dialogue between the pre-body and the pre-world as two possible alternatives to the objective approach.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Physical education

COinS