A new thesis of the “transcendental other” in physical education : a formation of “we-relationship” in the physicality

Abstract

In recent time there have been many problems concerning the “other”, and many people seem to have lost sight of the essence of the other being. The authors speculate that the causes of these issues are deeply related to the problem of the “self-other” and “physicality”. Based on these background issues, this paper attempts to present a new thesis of the “transcendental other” in physical education. First, the authors try to clarify the essence of the teacher-student relationship, and whether it can be regarded as one of subject-object or subject-subject? If a teacher teaches and a student learns, across a gap of maturity, the student is not the same as the teacher, but alien to him/her. In this sense, the student is a “separate other” for the teacher. In other words it may be said that the process of education involves communication to the “other” as an “alien”, and that it allows a student to transcend from an “alien” status to the same being. The authors examine the substance of “transcendence” in the following way. Though, according to L. Wittgenstein, logic and ethics are transcendental as “what cannot be said”, we cannot say what we have learned in education ; for example we have no words to describe skills learned in swimming. Therefore we are open to learning through “what cannot be said”. For this, one must acquire a viewpoint of the “transcendental other”. Finally, the authors try to present a new thesis of the “transcendental other” in physical education, involving acquisition through practice of physical movement. It is possible not to comprehend the “other” linguistically, but to feel it in terms of physicality. The physical acquisition of the “transcendental other” allows the formation of a “we-relationship”. Accordingly, the essence of the “self-other” relationship is a paradox of “alienation and sameness”. It is necessary to understand our society from this viewpoint of physicality.