Theoretical perspective and general assumptions

The author has formulated a theoretical concept to identify the general principles of a humanistic theory of martial arts for which he has adopted a (Central) European perspective – as in the title of the main thesis: The theory and practice of martial arts from a European perspective [1]. He has done this to consider the puzzle within the bigger picture and in an attempt to interpret the issues of ever growing conceptual ranges [2]. Cynarski’s anthropology of martial arts comes from the general anthropology of mental and physical progress. It is an extended version of a previously formulated humanistic theory of martial arts. The final shape of Anthropology of martial arts [3] was influenced by a reviewer S. Tokarski, as mentioned above. Thanks to this, the concept takes the achievements of many Polish and foreign authors into greater account. It is still a rather European perspective, because of its mentality, the availability of materials and research results [1,4], rather than a fully objective one. The latter is indeed quite impossible to achieve. Among the main theses formulated in martial arts anthropology the three most important, used for specifying the object of scientific inquiry, are: 1. Reducing martial arts and the warrior’s pathways only to sport is a serious mistake of reductionism, pigeon-holing and inadequate definition of terms [5,6,7,8,9]. First of all, in martial arts the axiology is different from that of sport. In sport, the main goal is to score, to win the competition. In the pathways of martial arts we find the aims positioned higher in the hierarchy, such as the improvement of the psychophysical personality and becoming a better person. 2. It is important to conduct multi-dimensional and many-fa cet ed analyses, taking into particular account the axiological dimension, especially in terms of education. The concept of holistic education is especially noteworthy here [10,11]. No less im port ant are the socio-cultural [12,7], and spiritual dimen sions [13]. 3. There is no one common axiology of martial arts (in the sense of a common canon), but rather there are many accord ing to the variety of martial arts, individual masters, teachers and schools. There is a philosophy of the warrior’s pathway known as kyokushin (the ultimate truth) [14] operating in the school and organisation of the master Masutatsu Oyama. There is also a philosophy of idō (perpetual motion), initiated by Dr Wally Strauss [15] and adopted by a group of today’s warriors of the pathway. Thus there are different „philosophies” for each type of martial arts, but an academic reflection on this topic may be described as research into the philosophy of martial arts, a new emerging discipline of philosophy, which is also a meta-theory for the science of martial arts.