The Epistemology of Movement: A study on how we acquire knowledge of movement
This article will add to the discussion on the importance of comprehensive movement education in Pilates. Within the Pilates community there is a rift which begins at the point where value is placed on a particular type of learning or background. I want to discuss the historical evolution of our knowledge of movement and the philosophical understanding of different ways to gain knowledge as it pertains to the movement community. Using a philosophical framework, I will discuss the importance of empiricism, intuition, memory knowledge, etc. as ways of ‘knowing’ and the value in incorporating many different methods of knowledge acquisition to understand the Pilates method and the person(s) we, as teachers, are working with.
Human movement is an extension of expression driven by need and desire. Tracing the history of movement is akin to walking the path of human evolution and indeed movement itself is a driver of physical change, adaptation and ultimately speciation. Primitive, nomadic lifestyles of early peoples required continual movement as a requirement of life: necessary foraging, hunting and social events. This high level of varied activity defined movement through the majority of human evolutionary time. Only recently, in the last 10,000 years and with the Neolithic Agrarian Revolution, has human movement become separate from our basic needs. However, even early civilizations recognized the need for regular physical activity and often tied the practice of physical fitness to religious or spiritual development. Fitness was also linked to the performance and efficiency of military forces in the ancient world and this relationship between physical strength and success in battle became the primary driver and motivation for movement education in continental Europe and North America and underlies our current empirical model. The mind-body concept in movement education has ebbed and flowed through the evolution of fitness with emphasis on one or another aspect of this relationship. And, as technology has advanced and our levels of fitness have decreased, our relationship with the quality and expressiveness of movement has become a specialized endeavor. The view that emotion should inspire movement is as foreign to modern Western fitness standards as evidenced based movement is to hula or Tai Chi.
Perhaps no other civilization revered physical fitness as much as the ancient Greek. The ideals of physical perfection upheld the tenet that a strong, healthy body was necessary for mental well-being. (Sounds familiar?) Gymnastics and music were considered the most important lessons and a common ancient Greek saying was "exercise for the body and music for the soul.” This philosophy developed alongside the study of epistemology or how we know what we know; what is knowledge and how do we get it.
The study of knowledge requires a definition: what is knowledge? Is it a collection of facts? Do we have to believe the facts to be true? Does it need to include integration and connection between those facts? Philosophers debated these questions and, through millenia of logical deduction and inference, now describe knowledge as a justified, true belief. Meaning that a statement may be considered knowledge if it is (1) objectively true: is has been empirically observed that muscles flex to move the body, (2)subjectively believed: I believe that muscles move the body as I have felt this to be true in my own body, and (3) justified: I am justified in my belief by a recognized authority, logical deduction, observation etc.
Thus, you need both an objective truth and a subjective belief to acquire knowledge. The ancient Greeks were one of many ancient cultures that acknowledged different ways of gaining knowledge. Namely, the mental faculties or ways of knowing the world around us are language, reason, sense perception, emotion, faith, imagination, intuition, and memory. One can think of these as ways of collecting data and each method is just as important as another to help us evaluate the world around us.
Languageis the fundamental method of communication and allows us to express our curiosity, ideas, and engage with one another. It brings with it a complexity to our relationships and can influence our thoughts and how we interpret other information.
Reason involves logical and methodic systems which allow us to interpret the observed world. We analyze, evaluate and systematically arrive at well supported conclusions. The empirical, evidence based world of modern science relies on procedures inherent in this way of knowing to provide justification for actions by using inference, inductive, or deductive reasoning.
Sense perception is just another way of saying observation but it includes the observations you make with all five of your senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. It includes all the data you gather from direct interactions with your environment. Aristotle believed sense perception was the fundamental path to knowledge and all knowledge begins with the senses registering the physical world.
Emotion can shape our perceptions, beliefs and judgement and affect our interpretation of information. This way of knowing can be very personal and is uniquely individual which adds to the complexity of how we gain and process knowledge.
Faith involves holding space for beliefs without empirical evidence or proof. This often is associated with spiritual or religious beliefs but encompasses all forms of trust or foundational beliefs that do not require empirical evidence. It provides guidance and purpose as a way of knowing.
Imagination, as Einstein saw it, was a fundamental way of expanding the known world. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world” It is an important tool for gaining knowledge as it allows for the ability to form ideas beyond what is physically perceived or currently experienced.
Intuition is knowledge that is immediate and comes from within. It is a sudden insight without the need for conscious reasoning. This way of knowing relies on subconscious pattern recognition and internalized learning.
Memory allows us to construct knowledge based on past experiences. As we draw on knowledge from the past and integrate it, we can call on this information to know something about our current experience or observation. This way of knowing connects us to our ancestral knowledge and is very individual, it co-mingles with our language, senses and emotions to give us insight.
It is important to recognize that we very rarely rely on a single approach and the integrated information we ingest guides our everyday responses. By recognizing the importance of all ways of knowing, that no one method is better than any other, and seeking to collect information in all aspects one can foster balanced open-mindedness.
“When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to resemble nails.”
Pilates is certainly having its moment. It is gaining in popularity at a momentous rate providing value in its various incarnations to millions across the world. And, as Pilates teachers, we have the increasingly difficult task of guiding the discourse and defining the work as belonging (or not) within the fitness and/or rehab space. Specifically, we are seeking knowledge of this movement modality to both define its limits and place it within an historical continuum of movement education and innovation. Debate over the justified true beliefs of movement are being shaped within the Pilates community and there is a rift forming which begins at the point where value is placed on a particular mode of knowledge acquisition.
There are those who value memory and faith and build their knowledge of Pilates from the knowledge of movement experts who developed and worked within the early system. Over decades these teachers developed deep intuition guiding their instruction and the value of their expertise cannot be overstated in this community. However, we must be aware that acquiring knowledge through faith, memory, and intuition can be faulty. This system might trust in beliefs despite an absence of clear evidence. It can be biased by emotions, the passage of time, and personal experiences.
There are those who value reason, evidenced based learning, and strictly observational input. They call for evidence-informed Pilates to strictly align with science-based movement principles and follow recommended fitness based limitations to strengthen their work with well-supported movement practices. This is a robust method however, we must be aware that acquiring knowledge solely through reason also has flaws. Knowledge through induction and deduction is based on observations or premises which can be biased. Data and research of the human body and fitness has historically focused on a reductionist or atomist approach to understanding, prioritizing knowledge of smaller and smaller pieces of the whole which fosters a narrow understanding. And, there exists an inherent assumption in the reliance on solely observable and measurable data that movement is limited to the physical plane, that emotional or intuitive experiences are not a component of movement. This is fundamentally detached from reality and specifically affects our teaching choices.
The debate about the value we place on how we acquire knowledge in Pilates is important and filled with emotion. It fuels strong feelings and has the power to shape the practice and curate the work. The strongest and most prolific voices will dictate client expectations and Pilates itself will shift, evolving to adapt.
However, the human body is complex. It is a challenge to fully understand and requires us to use many ways to find knowledge to help people support a healthy mind with a strong body. The more methods we use to acquire knowledge, the more knowledge we have to guide our clients towards happy movement. A biased training that discounts or prioritizes one single way of knowing over all others creates teachers who self-limit, rejecting information from all sources available.
“The success of any type of movement education is directly linked to the ability of those who teach it to embody the essence of the movement education philosophy.”
The philosophy underlying Pilates, or “contrology" as it was originally named, is a whole-body approach to health with a disciplined, organized mental and physical system dedicated to supporting pleasurable living. It resembles the ancient Greek belief of mens sana in corpore sano, “with body, mind, and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole.”
Joseph Pilates’s interpretation of physical fitness references performing daily tasks with “zest and pleasure.” and the ability to participate in “pleasure and relaxation” at the end of the day as primary motivators in the development of ideal physical fitness. His system incorporated the view of an integrated mind and body and emphasized the quality of movement, breath, whole body engagement, and patterning. This system allows a practitioner to draw upon all ways of knowing equally in moving through the work. Thus, Pilates integrates many different ways of knowing into a system where one can find knowledge of one's own movement. Of course, there are many movement modalities that include and integrate different ways of knowing, but the uniqueness of Pilates is in its’ integration of all equally, promoting a balanced and complete way of knowing movement.
As teachers, it is our responsibility to convey to our students the integration of all of these methods to support their investigation and discovery of their own movement as they strive towards a strong, healthy body and mental well-being.
