The International Budo Institute - Nature of Knowledge

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Nature of Knowledge

F.A. Hayek, Austrian Economist and Nobel Laureate (1899-1992)

"The individuals are merely the foci in the network of relationships and it is the various attitudes of the individuals toward each other (or their similar or different attitudes towards physical objects) which form the recurrent, recognizable and familiar elements of the structure."

Shihan Henderson's Comment:

In the above quote Professor Hayek is explaining the nature of knowledge and how knowledge is held by man both individually and universally. Professor Hayek is trying to explain to us that within the social sciences all knowledge is subjective and that this is very different from the scientific pursuit of objective facts found in the natural sciences.

The above distinction is very important for the study of martial arts for several reasons. First, the student must understand that kata is not just the study of objective fact (movement) but also the study of subjective facts (the ideas held within the kata). Now the objective facts of a kata do not take long to master. As a student you learn the 1st, 2nd and 3rd movement of the kata and continue until you have memorized and consolidated the information. Any student with a firm grasp of the basic techniques can achieve this end.

The more difficult aspect is learning the various attitudes of the individuals toward each other which form the recurrent, recognizable and familiar elements of the structure. In music this would mean not just learning the notes and the score but learning how to interpret the piece so that it is brought to life both for the performer and the listener.

In the martial arts this is performed by the role of the Sensei who is the "focus", as Prof. Hayek states, of the knowledge of the network of relationships. That is, the knowledge of the kata is not held in the individual techniques but is held in the consolidation, meaning and application of the entire base of knowledge. The important questions are not which technique comes next but rather why are the techniques being performed in this particular manner and style for such and such an application. This is the relational aspect of the study. This is the black belt level of study.

To broaden our discussion about the nature of knowledge and how it relates to martial arts study I introduce the following quote taken from C. V. Langlois and C. Seignobos from "Introduction to the Study of History" (London 1898):

"Actions and words all have this characteristics, that each was the action or word of an individual; the imagination can only represent to itself individual acts, copies from those which are brought before us by direct observation. As these are the actions of men living in society, most of them are performed simultaneously by several individuals, or are directed to some common end. These are collective acts; but in the imagination as in observation, they always reduce to a sum of individual actions. The social fact, as recognized by certain sociologist, is a philosophical construction, not a historical fact."

What the above quote brings to the fore is the importance of the teacher within the dissemination of knowledge. However, I do not speak about the importance of teachers or Sensei in an abstract collective manner. Here, I speak about the importance of the individual Sensei or more specifically, your Sensei, for it is he or she that takes the collective acts and brings them down to the level of or reduced to individual actions which we can then ingest.

More so however, the Sensei translates these individuals acts for the student and makes them real. He turns a historical fact (the moves of a kata) and turns it into a philosophical construction - he gives meaning to form. This is knowledge. This is the knowledge that the student seeks, the individual movements are just mere data points. Kicking and punching is not Budo. Budo is learning the philosophical construction of the lessons that are passed down, transmitted or rendered by the teacher.

The other important point to make is that the philosophical construct to which we speak is individualistic as it is rendered by an individual even though they are performed by several individuals or directed to some common end. That is, we have many people performing the same kata within the greater society of Budo. However, even though there is a collective group performing the kata to a common end (learning and progression) the study and learning of kata is by individual acts brought forward by the Sensei. This is why different students from different Sensei perform kata differently. They have been taught on an individual basis.

Nevertheless, the student who performs kata differently is still performing the same philosophical construction. This is why as you get higher in Budo all kata study becomes your own, or as we say "Dai" variation. At some point there is no wrong or right. A master paints a painting as a master and who can argue about a certain brush stroke here or there. It is the entire canvass which makes the case for genius.

So the important point from a student perspective is to recognize that basics are important because they form the foundation, but that any individual technique is no less or more important than the next. If you perform a punch in the place of a kick, or vice versa, it may be technically incorrect but philosophically consistent with the larger lesson, you are still using the familiar elements of the structure. So try to see the philosophy behind the knowledge and not the simple data points. By doing this you will develop a greater appreciation for your Sensei and for the knowledge that he or she has. You will expand your mind and instead of seeing a string of individual techniques you will see a landscape of colour. At this point you will be studying martial arts with the emphasis on the Art.