ハーバート・スペンサーの体育論についての一考察

抄録

“Education: intellectual, moral, and physical” is still a paradigm of educational thought today. Deducing from this paradigm, one often tends to think that physical education aims at only the physical development of people, while physical education as a school subject has the objectives of mental and social development as well as skills' and physical development. This contradiction is the problem examined in this study, which is solved through critical and structural examination of the text of Herbert Spencer.
There are many authors who cite H. Spencer as a part of their writings, but all are lacking in understanding of his thoughts on physical education concerning the problem addressed in this present paper. The analysing viewpoints of the text are: A. the fundamental structure of his “education”; B. the meaning of the term “physical” in his work; C. his principles of training; and D. his object of physical education.
It was concluded that for Herbert Spencer physical education means that the ordinary life of people should be guided by scientific knowledge from a “physical” viewpoint. In this sense the term “physical” means both health and physical knowledge. The training principle included in such a concept is to overt latent possibilities of life through physical knowledge, wherein people are educated through self-discipline. The object of Spencer's physical education includes people's eating habits, clothing, as well as bodily movements. These three viewpoints, intellectual, moral, and physical, are a guide for life. Physical education activities, as a subject, are a way of life for both pupils and their teachers. This life also is to be seen from these three viewpoints. From the above mentioned, the difference should be discernable between physical education as a subject and physical education as a critical viewpoint of Herbert Spencer.
The value of H. Spencer's theoretical structure for today's theory of physical education are as follows:
A. discrimination between life and knowledge,
B. discovery of life through “physical knowledge”,
C. adaptability to thoughts on physical education in other cultures, including those of the past and future through these structures.