This is the first substantial academic book to lay out the philosophical terrain within the study of the martial arts and to explore the significance of this fascinating subject for contemporary philosophy.

Introduction: Philosophy and the Martial Arts Part 1: From Philosophy to the Martial Arts 1. The Promise and the Peril of Martial Arts (Simon Roberts-Thomson) 2. Practicing Evil: Training and Psychological Barriers in the Martial Arts (Gillian Russell) 3. Martial Arts and Moral Life (Sylvia Burrow) 4. The Martial Arts as Philosophical Practice (Henry Martyn Lloyd) Part 2: From the Martial Arts to Philosophy 5. Understanding Quality and Suffering through the Martial Arts (Steve Bein) 6. Is Proprioceptive Art Possible? (Markus Schrenk) 7. A Sublime Peace (Ross Barham) 8. On Self-Awareness and the Self (Koji Tanaka) 9. Mushin and Flow: An East-West Comparative Analysis (Kevin Krein and Jesús Ilundain) Part 3: Buddhism and other Asian Philosophical Traditions 10. Ahimsa, Buddhism, and the Martial Arts: A Soteriological Consequentialist Approach to Understanding Violence in Martial Practice (Richard Schubert) 11. The Martial Arts and Buddhist Philosophy (Graham Priest) 12. Bowing to Your Enemies: Courtesy, Budo and Japan (Damon Young)