Author(s): ZHEN, Z., ZHANG QI, Institution: EAST CHINA NORMAL UNIVERSITY, Country: CHINA, Abstract-ID: 1621

This paper explores the holism and uniqueness of sports knowledge through the lens of embodied philosophy, addressing key challenges in integrating diverse disciplinary elements into a cohesive system. Starting from the need to construct holistic sports knowledge and highlight its distinctiveness, the study traces the genealogy of embodied philosophy—from its religious origins, Husserlian phenomenology, existential phenomenology, to contemporary interdisciplinary developments—and its three-dimensional structure: primary embodiment (individual bodily existence), secondary embodiment (interactions with others and the world), and tertiary embodiment (symbolic and narrative projections). This framework updates the connotation of knowledge by incorporating individuality, locality, and developmental cognition under monism, enabling the unification of motor skills, physical fitness, and theoretical knowledge from humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences into a singular, structured entity. Sports knowledge transcends being mere tools for health or objects of other disciplines, evolving into a holistic science centered on movement.
Embodied philosophy bridges somatic expressions (direct, experiential motor skills) with semiotic ones (abstract symbols like culture and spirit), viewing symbols as spatial metaphors rooted in bodily experiences. For instance, Olympic spirit or team culture are not abstract entities but embodied narratives that enhance physical performance, integrating humanities knowledge with practical skills. Similarly, natural sciences like physiology and biomechanics are reframed as psychophysical, aligning with embodied monism to avoid dualism, as seen in neurophenomenology and evidence-based approaches that incorporate subjective experiences.
The paper distinguishes sports knowledge by its unique contributions: movement as the root of all embodied cognition, emphasizing kinesthetic perception; physical fitness as a novel knowledge type, inseparable from skills, will, and emotion; and physical literacy as a generative, holistic knowledge form that structures developmental cognition. Unlike disembodied disciplines, sports knowledge evolves from training and pedagogical practices toward disciplinary content, creating a "third knowledge form" with specialized vocabularies (e.g., metaphorical cues, paralinguistic feedback) that blend tacit and explicit elements. This positions sports as a new unitary cognitive science and holistic pedagogy, offering fresh paradigms for knowledge theory.