Dorota Ambroїy¹,
Juliusz Piwowarski^2
1University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland
² School of Higher Education in Public and Individual Security „Apeiron”, Cracow, Poland 

Key words: physical culture, safety culture, aesthetic experience, moral strength, organized physical activity

Introduction

The phenomenon of safety culture has been a part of man’s life probably since the very beginning of any form of social engagement. Juliusz Piwowarski states that safety culture is the entirety of material and non-material elements of mankind’s established output that serves to cultivate, reclaim and raise the level of security of certain subjects [9].

As Marian Cieњlarczyk notes, these elements can be categorized into three groups, or pillars, as he calls them:

1. Mental and spiritual pillar,

2. Organizational and legal pillar,

3.  Material pillar [2, 3].

The first of the three pillars, one that underlines the fundamental sense of human person, is especially vital as it forms the basis for safety culture. It is a basic asset because when the first pillar grows weak, the other two, no matter how evolved they may be, slowly become useless. Their influence on man’s security may in fact be dysfunctional, or even destructive. Let us not forget that the main cognitive category of securitology (security studies) is in fact the antonym of security: danger. As it is both hard to predict and difficult to control, oftentimes danger assumes such proportions that it can be counteracted only collectively. In such undertakings, separate individuals may often be doomed to fail. On the other hand, a cooperation of a group of people is only effective when the community’s ethical culture (as an element of the first pillar) is well developed. From a praxeologist point of view, moral strength as well as experiencing reality in a conscious manner in the process of education toward values become good prognostics for overcoming any looming threats. They offer a foundation after a fashion, foundation that is based on the psychological sphere, from which stems the belief that a victory can be achieved through incessant fighting even in unfavorable circumstances and when the opponent’s physical strength seems dominant.

The study of safety culture shows how important physical culture is in shaping man’s securitological attitudes. The core of man’s conscious and expedient functioning is in the everyday effort of finding the meaning of one’s existence, undertaken with a prominent aid of the rules of axiology of motor activity. The issues of exercise, fitness, health and the aesthetics of human body correspond to moral values which are the driving force of human history. In the field of body axiology, the main objective is to describe, interpret and analyze facts pertaining to man’s corporeality, which are meaningful, and hence constitute a value.

Forms of participation in physical culture, such as: physical education, sport, recreation, or rehabilitation, are a way of facing one’s own physicality and pursuing body awareness. Sports or recreational training becomes an experience of various stimuli flowing from the body and a way to “familiarize” oneself with one’s body. Seeking physical coherence in sensations that make it possible to feel safe is a basic aspect of physical identity. In sports competition the corporeal image of man is emphasized. One who is physically active, builds his/her own identity through experiencing his/her own body, its place in space and time, looking for confrontation with the environment, which in consequence builds a kaleidoscope of physical sensations, from which emerges the individual qualitative element of experiencing corporeality.

Human motion does not stem solely from man’s structural abilities. Its effectiveness results from the cooperation between biological and psycho-social bases. The biological element is based on the musculoskeletal system and sources of energy, whereas motivation and objective form the psycho-social component. In human existence, motion is not only the movement of the body, but also a holistic synthesis after a fashion [1]. Sciences of physical culture see two sides to each instance of movement: the potential side that is comprised in the notions of wanting and being able, and the effective side which manifests itself in the course of motion and in its results. The total vision of the collaboration of these two sides is the objective of various forms of physical culture, achieved by perfecting those aspects of human ability that would lead to performing actions in such a way as to obtain the perfect technique which would determine gaining a fit body. Forms of physical activity become a search for individual qualities connected to experiencing corporeality, and thus to issues of human sensuality, or the aesthetic plane. Body awareness not only makes it possible to understand its function, but also is a means of delivering multiple data. Experiencing corporeality in motion, in a way, is a synthesis of physicality and mind, in other words: of the subject’s awareness. One might say this exceptional anthropological aptitude is reserved for man as a subject.

One factor that is significant to safety culture, but probably often overlooked by securitologists, is the aesthetic element. According to Richard Shusterman, aesthetic experience is in its nature a valuable as well as pleasant sensation. In other words, it has an evaluative dimension [13]. This phenomenological dimension of physical culture is also the thing that we vitally feel and in which we subjectively delight, something that absorbs us emotionally and draws our attention to its direct presence, stands out from the routine stream of experience. This aspect is also the source of meaningful experiences, not just pure sensations, which can be associated with a semantic dimension. Aesthetic experience can form the basis to exhibit aesthetic value. According to Dewey, the notion of experience is not limited to the individual aspect, but transcends the placement within a subject and extends to the state preceding its formation. Hence aesthetic experience comprises all that man collects in his memory as the experiences that shape his worldview. According to the aforementioned author, everything that occurs in the course of an individual’s existence is an experience [4]. As it contains elements of subjective activity, it can give cause to shaping and creating the external image which also emphasizes inner values, such as integrity, kindness, perfectionism, responsibility or courage. “Hence aesthetic experience is the sublimation of all those forces that organize experience into a fulfilling whole, where this sublimation is based on whetting the operation of those forces by the fact that while in other kinds of experiences they are a means to an end, here they constitute a unity of objectives and means” [14]. Continuing our deliberations on the role of aesthetics in building safety culture, we reach a conclusion that “by being a real experience, or a rhythmically ordered expression, aesthetic experience is, after a fashion, a fulfillment that determines the value of our life” [14]. This cumulative nature of aesthetic rhythm makes it possible for particular stages of experience to grant that fulfillment, which never is final, though it does lead towards a final conclusion. This characteristic distinguishes aesthetic experience from other kinds of experiences, in which the feeling of fulfillment does not shift from stage to stage, but rather appears only in the final phase. Whereas in aesthetic experience each individual stage of experience is integral to the fulfillment that concludes the experience, and at the same time the final completion is also present in each individual phase of the developing experience” [14]. “The final phase of experience – the fulfillment – is always both transitional and ultimate. The objective we have achieved, unexpectedly turns out to be but a stage, for the experience in progress opened before us unforeseen perspectives of carrying it out and developing it further, thanks to which experience is full of novelties, surprises and spontaneity, and the process of experiencing and living continues without pause” [14]. Thus aesthetic experience is a constant attempt to overcome the present limits, operating as an affective force, and those combined meanings explain why aesthetic experience can be transformative. For the aesthetic judgment being formed, individual characteristics of the recipient are particularly important, who in his/her own interpretation expresses his/her attitude toward the perceived object. Hence it can be a consciously or unconsciously assumed attitude toward the perceived object, which allows for individual analyses. According to Kant, it requires man’s exclusive talents, because this is about experiencing beauty and affirming what is real in all its changeability. Aesthetic perception is an attempt to transcend the everyday view of reality. It supplements quantitative cognition, considering what is given in a different way. It becomes a synthesis of multiple cognitive forces collaborating, although, as Kant notes in Critique of Judgment, aesthetic perception is not about cognition. What is emphasized here is exposing the essence which manifests itself through the rejection of practical and cognitive thinking in order for man to become receptive to sensations. It also allows for the rejection of conceptual cognition and enables gaining a kind of freedom. It was also corroborated by Hegel [5] and supported by Schopenhauer (in his The World as Will and Presentation, 1818), [11] who stated that aesthetic perception increased the ability to distance oneself from conceptual cognition and goal-oriented action. So aesthetic perception leads to exposing a reality much richer than can be absorbed though conceptual cognition. It allows for a much broader analysis, understanding and consciously experiencing the objective world. Here what is hard, or even impossible to define is affirmed. And so, what appears in the senses of the observers in a particular situation and enables a deep awareness of one’s own existence. As Martin Seel notes, “… aesthetics as a doctrine of special possibilities of perception and special possibilities of living life, is a part of both a comprehensive theory of perception and of a comprehensive ethics” [12].

Beauty manifests itself both in places where we are especially disposed towards aesthetic perception, i.e. art galleries, theaters, concert halls, or landscapes, and in the ordinary, everyday life, filled with contacts with other people, work, leisure and various other forms of human activity, which only seemingly lack an aesthetic dimension. As J. Lipiec claims, the program of aestheticizing reality can include all manifestations of human activity as well as, in a more moderate approach, only that “which manages to become an objective basis for aesthetic evaluation.” [8] Lipiec poses a question: “can everything that is cognized be subject to aesthetization, or are only certain objects of sensations suitable to meet the demands of any and arbitrary aesthetics, that is to become filled with proper matter creating particular systems, capable of presenting in this particular nature” [8]. In this way, Lipiec points to the subject’s interest in the aesthetic aspects of reality.

In the aspect of physical culture emphasizing values relating to body, aesthetic experience in view of safety culture is a kind of a holistic experience that comprises both the aspect of perfect physical proportions (with good muscle tone, the appropriate amount of fat, proper posture) and displaying aspects of spiritual life, without which there would be no grace, gesture or mimics that characterize man. This specifically human body play is a non-verbal way of communicating and allows to express one’s emotions and feelings. This way of thinking bears no logical contradiction, because a well-toned human body, filled with spiritual values, becomes an aesthetic phenomenon. The phenomenon of aesthetic corporeality resembles the top of a mountain which one strives to reach through one’s way of living and through countless human choices. Human body becomes the image that reflects life choices.

Safety culture is about preserving human subjectivity in the affirmation of corporeality. Ego is a peculiar map of the body, rooted in corporal sensations that occur mostly on its surface. Human skin, with its innumerable receptors, is the most sensitive receiving point for external stimuli, pain, warmth, touch. Subjective body is a body in the full sense of the word, one that is not objectified, one that does serve as an instrument in realizing goals, but is not enslaved. This is a body whose needs we listen to. Man hears those needs and meets them. He takes care of it, respects and appreciates it. Enslaving the body by bonds of any kind, either by locking it inside a closed space, physically binding it, or by applying various kinds of limitations, i.e. extreme diets or a lack of proper amount of exercise, can lead to disruptions in its proper operation. A subjective body becomes a stipulation of human subjectivity in safety culture. This deep respect toward man and one’s own body also expresses self-honesty. Through the body man shows the synthesis of spirit and body to the world. Man needs his body in order to create one’s own life story freely and responsibly. The body is the basic matter in the process of creation and visualization. Soul’s unique creation through the body is possible when man feels his own sensuality and manifests it through countless gestures, sets of moves and ways of performing movement. Each of these manifestations of motor sequences may become a corporal masterpiece. Through the motion of his body, man is able to express a lot: from rapture, satisfaction, creativity, desire, pleasure, to weakness, helplessness, suffering, pain, illness, vulnerability and the finitude of man. Similarly to how words reflect our thoughts, the body can relay existences.

Here we reach another indelible aspect of mental and spiritual basis in safety culture. This is the aforementioned moral strength, which is an attempt to make a choice between right and wrong. At the same time, it becomes the paragon of this choice. It is also a way to overcome one’s weakness. Yet, in accordance to the concept of physical culture, but also to Far-Eastern martial arts, virtues are internalized in the process of broadly construed training. This is reflected in the method of learning through one’s whole body, or karada de oboeru, as it is known in the original Japanese. Hence dojo budo is known as “a place where human mind is perfected in the sweat of one’s brow.” Here the moral strength that Roman M. Kalina, a scholar in physical culture, mentions, is forged. “Praxeologists distinguish… moral force, from the current scientific term of force,” Kalina writes. “They associate this moral strength mostly with issues of effectiveness of actions both in armed and non-armed conflict.” [6]

Tadeusz Kotarbiсski, a renowned Polish praxeologist, very evocatively presented an idea that is equivalent to the notion of “learning with one’s whole body.” According to him, “combat… is extraordinary at education as both sides of the conflict try to place their counterpart before tasks of ever-increasing difficulty. Hence it is the great school of mastery.” [7] Karate master Masutatsu Oyama spoke of karate in a manner strikingly similar do Kalina’s way of thinking. He believed karate was a form of self-defense of a weaker opponent against the stronger one’s domination, identified as a component of the first pillar of safety culture. It seems that Polish scholars, like the aforementioned Tadeusz Kotarbiсski or Jarosіaw Rudniaсski can claim quite a decent input in this field, compared to other European authors. Their observations and remarks can be viewed as arguments for the usefulness of Far-Eastern ideas for the purpose of revitalization moral strength of the West. For, as Rudniaсski notes, “the moral strength of the team and unity is one of the necessary conditions to oppose an adversary who has greater strength in numbers or resources,” [10] as well as other serious threats, for instance natural forces. Although “this kind of force [is] not sufficiently recognized by science, [it] has a strange appeal that is hard to explain even today. Thus individuals and teams of great moral force are able to effectively oppose much stronger adversaries.” [10] It can be concluded that the current crisis of values whose range seems global, is the biggest threat to the first pillar of safety culture and its inherent moral strength. “Learning with one’s whole body,” rooted in the Japanese model of karada de oboeru, may be a tool to counteract the lowered potential of the moral imperative. As Rudniaсski states, “drawing upon historical and systemic analyses of current studies of a few social and behavioral disciplines, one could assume that individuals of significant moral strength are both resilient to all ways of psychological ruination and capable of employing prosocial behavior” [10]. We can surmise that moral strength is represented by a strong psyche and spirituality (which has become the subject of scientific study relatively recently, as has safety culture).

In the brief analysis of the aforementioned elements of a conscious, subjective experience of physical activity, we should note that they give rise to the potential of aesthetic experiences and moral strength that enable particular efficiency of human action. These actions are carefully thought out, planned in detail and goal-oriented, and at the same time, by an uncompromising act of human will, placed within the context of rules of ethics. They are based on the reservoirs of man’s greatest strength: moral strength that is intensely apparent in the course of an aesthetic experience. Through this very strength human person is not merely a mechanism to overcome threats, but a subject who consciously experiences his activity. In conclusion, we should add that physical culture is among the best training fields for that. Physical culture that is practiced in various forms of organized physical activity allows us to learn and fully experience the world with our whole bodies. We must take care of and fight for this fullness every day through making use of the holistic offer of physical culture, for without it, our knowledge of physical culture would be limited to its surface, greatly simplified at that, which in turn would weaken our autonomous (personal) security system.

REFERENCES

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4. Dewey J., Jak myњlimy?, PWN, Warszawa 1988. [How We Think, BN Publishing 2009.]
5. Hegel G. W. F., Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Oxford University, Oxford 1967.
6. Kalina R. M., Teoria sportуw walki, Biblioteka Trenera, Warszawa 2000, p. 75.
7.  Kotarbiсski T., Z zagadnieс ogуlnej teorii walki, [in:] Wybуr pism, Warszawa 1957.
8. Lipiec J., Powrуt do estetyki, Fall, Krakуw 2005.
9. Piwowarski J., Kultura bezpieczeсstwa, „Kultura bezpieczeсstwa. Nauka – Praktyka – Refleksje”, Apeiron WSBPI, 2012, nr 12.
10. Rudniaсski J., Elementy prakseologicznej teorii walki, PWN, Warszawa 1983, p. 144, 145, 155.
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12. Seel M., Estetyka obecnoњci fenomenalnej, Universitas, Krakуw 2008. [Aesthetics of Appearing, trans. J. Farrell, Stanford University Press, Stanford 2005.]
13. Shusterman R., Praktyka filozofii, filozofia praktyki, Universitas, Krakуw 2003, p. 233. [Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life, Routledge 1996.]
14. Wilkoszewska K., Sztuka jako rytm їycia, Universitas, Krakуw 2003, pp. 126, 134, 132.

Corresponding author: Dorota Ambroїy, Sport Institute - University School of Physical Education, Cracow, al. Jana Pawіa II 78, 31-557 Cracow, Poland,

Phone: +48 501 587 687

E-mail: tadek@ambrozy.pl