ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the philosophy of martial arts from the perspective of the practice of the martial or fighting arts themselves. Philosophy as a practice will rely on the work of Pierre Hadot and his understanding of 'philosophy as a way of life', and on Michel Foucault's late work on 'the care of the self'. It examines two of the major texts of classical bushido, Takuan's The Unfettered Mind and Tsunetomo's Hagakure. The chapter describes the Greek and Roman systems of philosophy as Foucault and Hadot read them and bushido systems of remarkably similar content. It examines historical and contemporary situations some specific martial practices and provides the question of the philosophy of martial arts with a series of historically specific answers. The chapter shows, the historical continuity between the spirituality or ascesis of Tokugawa Bushido and that of the martial arts as practiced in the contemporary Occident and, the historical contingency of the relationship between martial arts and virtue.
