| Abstrakt: |
If empathy is how bodies resonate with one another, and ethics is what we are meant to do with that resonance, consideration of the ethics of empathy must begin with the split-second, nonconscious responses between bodies: first-blush empathy. By combining the expertise of academics and practitioners of bodily knowledge, martial arts studies can distinctively consider how to cultivate the most ethical responses to others. This disciplinary argument takes physical form through a reading of a practice from Shotokan karate-do that opposes hyper-attention to self or other with cultivated non-attention. To unpack these principles, the essay then uses philosophy of mind to illustrate how attention provides a more compelling description of this initial bodily response to other bodies than intention. To most ethically engage others without imposing our own knowledge or self-absorption, we should cultivate deliberate habits of receptivity around first-blush empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
