Spontaneous movement: an exploration of the concept

ABSTRACT

This paper explores what is understood by the phrase ‘spontaneous movement’. We discern five different understandings of spontaneity in the usage of the phrase: 1) spontaneous movement as automatic machine-like mechanistic, 2) spontaneous movement as free, 3) spontaneous movement as primal animateness of the body, 4) spontaneous movement as embodied responsive dealing in the world, 5) spontaneous movement as a force of nature. The first two understandings are rooted in a dualistic view, with the dichotomies of voluntary/involuntary and mind/body in the Western philosophical tradition. The next two arise from a phenomenological reflection on the body, drawn from Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, while the last comes from a holistic Eastern view of the body, human beings and nature. We argue that the latter three understandings of spontaneity demonstrate three aspects of a more comprehensive picture of the spontaneity of human movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Spontaneity
• movement
• embodiment
• body
• Merleau-Ponty
• Daoism

Acknowledgments

This paper was written with institutional support from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Cooperatio (Sport Sciences Social) and SVV (Specifický vysokoškolský výzkum no. 260 731/2023) and the Grant Agency of Charles University (project no. 80122).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Apart from the studies based on phenomenology that try to provide a different interpretation of spontaneous movement, which will be explained in the next section.

2. For discussion of spontaneity in the work of selected philosophers, see Bruya (2010).

3. This is a very misleading translation. Players are not careless; if anything, they are carefree.

4. ‘Movement awakens transcendental subjectivity in the form of kinesthetic consciousness’ (Sheets-Johnstone 2011, 119).

5. Sheets-Johnstone (2011, 119) herself also quotes Landgrebe here: ‘kinesthetic motions … are the most fundamental dimension of transcendental subjectivity, the genuinely original sphere, so that even the body (Leib), as functioning body, is not just something constituted but is itself constituting as the transcendental condition of the possibility of each higher level of consciousness and of its reflexive character’ (Landgrebe 1977, 108).

6. In the philosophy of mind, skilled action is also a recurrent topic, and the philosophical discussions more often concern motor control drawing upon psychology and cognitive science, as in Sutton (2007); Brownstein (2014), Christensen et al. (2016). In philosophy of sport, Breivik (2017, 2018) and Heath and Larsen (2022) also address this topic within phenomenology but they discuss skilled action in sports in terms of intentionality.

7. For a more expansive account of the spatiality of the body, see Merleau-Ponty (2012, 100–155) .

8. For more discussion about the concept of body schema, see Merleau-Ponty (2012, 100–155) and further interpretation by Halák (2018).

9. The term 自然 (zìrán) is also sometimes used within Confucianism, for which rituals are more important than spontaneity (e.g. Dell’Olio 2022). With respect to movement practices, Confucianism is also more open to competitive sporting practices than Daoism, in which sport is usually criticised (see e.g. Pho 2023).

10. In Chinese, there is a famous idiom 庖丁解牛(páo dīng jiě niú) that encapsulates the story of the butcher. 庖(páo) means cook and丁(dīng) is the name of the skilful butcher, plus 解 (jiě): carve up and 牛(niú): bull.

11. Although Zen meditation practice is based on Buddhist ideas, Zen Buddhism is a result of an integration of Daoist and Confucianist ideas into Buddhism in China. For a more detailed account see Martínková and Wang (2022).