In this extensive introduction, my intention is to give a comprehensive idea of what will be developed in the following documents. So, let us start with the definitions of philosophy. Its etymological origin is ‘love of wisdom’, referring to expanding our understanding of things. Philosophical thinking is a distinctive trait of individuals, as it is a method of inquiry that does not rely on tangible knowledge. The primary objective of philosophy is to clarify ideas. Philosophizing is the act of ascending in thought.
When we do philosophy, there is no progress, since we do not move forward but inward; toward the richness of our minds and the possibilities of reflection that this implies. Thinking and stripping ourselves of our prejudices are two things that serve to do philosophy.
Immanuel Kant pointed out that “One does not learn philosophy; one learns to philosophize”, and that we do so not to find new certainties, but to debate those that we already know, or that we consider as such.
When we engage in philosophy, we move away from everyday life and postulate other derivations that distract us from our immediate purposes. Philosophical reflections often have no connection with our daily existence, besides being expressed in a complex language. It is possible that philosophy focuses on evidence, on things that are self-understood because of how natural they are, but philosophy deals with things that we are not used to observing because of their proximity.
Nowadays, skiing philosophy may be perceived as something superfluous, unnecessary, as something that does not belong to our times. We ski as everyone else skis, and consume what everyone else consumes. It is not surprising that, in a society where consumption reigns, philosophy is a meaningless entity. However, behind our culture there is a certain philosophy, a philosophy of science, knowledge, or ethics.
In a world where knowledge is fragmented and specialized, philosophy, as the mother of all sciences, provides concepts that foster critical thinking and an ethical and moral vision that contribute to the reunification of knowledge.
The general belief is that doing philosophy focuses on reflecting on concepts such as good and bad, morality, the meaning of life, or the being. However, it also focuses on current issues such as tolerance, fashion, the body, or the ecology, among others. This approach enables us to comprehend the occurrences of contemporary life by removing ourselves from reality, contemplating, and concluding how we exercise our freedom and responsibility.
Philosophy examines two questions that are very specific to it: being and knowing. As skiers, our nature is to be subjected to corporeal vicissitudes to the act of rooting ourselves in a snowy mantle. Our understanding of skiing depends on our physical activity and this also includes the obvious, what we take for granted and perhaps, the least we understand. We are accustomed to letting ourselves be carried away by the inertia of an everyday skiing without answers. If we do not know the causes of our own skiing, then how will we be able to identify the causes of more significant things? Perhaps, rather than asking why, which might not be clear, it would be better to ask what for, as it would provide us with a valid respond.
Since philosophy moves on the plane of critique, the above principles are addressed to us, as skiers, to use our own criteria, of which each one of us should use. If we wish to reflect seriously and not digress, it is necessary to examine each subject, since we cannot criticize what we know only superficially or not at all. Consequently, we will be able to understand the issues if we apply reflection independently of the mentioned philosophers.
In a sense, we are all philosophers, however, what is the purpose of being a philosopher? Being a philosopher requires the ability to reflect for oneself. The philosopher is seen as an individual who pursues knowledge, who questions the reality of things in the world in which he finds himself. We can all become true philosophers, we only need to be amazed by the things we contemplate.
According to Aristotle, we are naturally curious and seek knowledge through inquiry into the causes of things, that is, everything that makes something be, restoring the concept of contemplation and wonder in terms of interest not only about what things we know about skiing, but also about the skiers that we become by knowing.
When we do philosophy, we contemplate things in themselves. We seek certainty for what it is; not for what we can do with it in a utilitarian sense. Now, is philosophy useless knowledge that questions everything useful?
In a world that is constantly undergoing scientific and technological advances and conquests, it would not seem easy to define a philosophical field. The questions we would naturally ask ourselves would be, for example, what is skiing philosophy good for us today? What can we do with skiing philosophy? What can ski philosophy do for us? Evidently, these questions have a utilitarian purpose, therefore, doing skiing philosophy from this perspective will not be as helpful to us as we intend it to be. For example, if we conceive a pair of skis by their utility, we place the value in that utility, in what they are useful for, not in the skis themselves. And this brings another question: could it be that we are used to deducing things or people only by their utility? Utility, as a postmodern value, is essentially naturalized in the meaning we give to things. To engage in skiing philosophy is to abandon the notion of utility and seek alternative meanings for skiing.
Edmund Husserl argued that doing philosophy should start from simple things and their problems, not from philosophical currents per se. The philosophical issues are considered as “problems”. These problems of philosophy are questions using the whys.
Philosophy looks at the last aspects of the events, while the other disciplines focus on the immediate fields of the same events. And what are the problems of skiing? Passion, time, space, change, knowing how to ski; problems that were the same before but that are updated according to the times in which skiing takes place. To paraphrase Søren Kierkegaard, skiing is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Karl Jaspers exposed the three origins of philosophy, namely astonishment, doubt and limit situations. Astonishment is determined to be the first origin of philosophy, giving rise to the why. The being of skiing, like the astonishment generated by the magnitude of a mountain. Philosophical questions arise out of wonder, from the fact that there is skiing when there could have been nothing. Astonishment is what motivates philosophizing, that is, amazement of the skiing world. The first cause of the search for knowledge is wondering about the cause of what surprises.
The true existence of things is the origin of philosophy. The astonishment leads one to ask for the cause of that existence. The philosophical attitude begins when we realize that every circumstance and every entity cannot be explained by itself. The existence of their existence astonishes and questions us. Philosophy extends this questioning to everything that exists.
We mean that philosophy fosters curiosity. When we are children, we are curious; we constantly ask the whys and wherefores of things to our parents. As authorities, they often answer “Because it is so!”. We then incorporate the belief that things are always or have always been like that. Why does it snow? Why does ice form? Why do avalanches fall? Instead of saying that it has always been that way, we, as parents, should answer, “I don’t know why it is that way, but let’s look into it together.”
History considers Thales of Miletus as the first philosopher, as he was the one who formulated the question: what is the origin of things? And he determined that everything comes from water, from a humid environment, because he understood that water is at the origin of the earth, in the human body, and in the vital need to consume it. Thales tried to explain reality conceptually, which is how rational thought was born. In a similar manner, we may also ask ourselves what the origin of skiing is, and like Thales, we may infer that it is found in water since it becomes the ineluctable sliding element: the snow.
Doubt is the second origin of philosophy. As it happens in science and also in daily skiing, knowledge is affected by error since, because knowledge is fallible, so it leads to criticism. Consequently, doubt, that is, distrust of all knowledge, makes it a second origin of philosophy.
Generally speaking, there is no single reason or cause for the origin of things, which leads us to doubt constantly. If we reflect, when skiing, errors of the senses appear, such as a certain type of snow that seems optimal to us at a distance but is not so when we approach it. Therefore, we must consider that our sensory perceptions are often misleading.
When we face a challenging descent, and it is not possible to regret it, we must go down. At this moment, we commence the frantic pursuit of certainty, as we eliminate doubts in order to take responsibility for a decision.
René Descartes stated that he could not doubt that he was doubting. So if we doubt, we think, and if we think, then we exist but we also ski. When we ski, there is a certainty, and that is that everything happens to us, but before we can build a certainty, we must first doubt.
A novel technical concept or a distinct theory of skiing may be examined by an individual who possesses a different understanding of skiing and subsequently tests and experiences it before disseminating it among others. We test this through the creation of a previous thought; therefore, we can conclude, for now, that first we think, then we ski.
In the third origin of philosophy we find limit situations. In wonderment, we have a direct attitude towards the skiing world, and the environment that surrounds us. When doubtful, we do not direct our gaze towards the external, but towards ourselves, towards our own activity of knowing. We realize our own limitations when we doubt, when recognizing we do not know everything or something. We become aware of limiting situations and this doubt that arises from our own reflection becomes deeper.
When skiing, we always encounter situations that change, or that can change, and that limit us. They establish barriers that we cannot advance beyond, manifesting our finite experience, i.e., our temporal and spatial limitation. This demarcates the awareness of finitude and, by bringing to consciousness the what for, the opportunity appears for us to remember the amazement of being there, of being-in-the-mountain.
Limit situations are those in which we cannot impose ourselves in the immediate; then it is there where our finitude, our limitations in terms of our skiing abilities arise. As these circumstances occur, we become aware of them. If we fall and break a leg, it will affect our freedom of daily movement. Consequently, we will be aware of our limitations due to the impossibility of moving for a certain time, so then we will value the relevance of moving freely. Why are these limit situations the origin of philosophy? Because they enable us to inquire as to the reason behind their occurrence and their impact on us.
In conclusion, skiing philosophy originates from three states of mind: astonishment, doubt, and concern for our finitude as skiers.
Philosophy studies everything that is being: the abstract and the concrete, being and non-being, good and evil, the world, movement, etc.; nothing escapes the vision of philosophy, since everything is its object. Since all things are the object of philosophy, philosophy is also interested in the skier as an object.
It is so obvious the question about the condition of existence itself, since if skiing did not exist, we could not be skiers; therefore, it can be said that philosophy consists in the analysis of the obvious.
Skiing philosophy asks the most obvious question: why is there skiing when there might not be? It is a question about the foundation of skiing. Could it be that, instead of not thinking about the world of skiing because it is ‘natural‘, is it natural because we do not think about it? In this particular context, this notion of ‘naturalness’ is the most detrimental aspect of philosophical thinking.
The most effective alternative to approaching philosophy is to ask ourselves about reality. Philosophy, through questioning and reflection, studies issues that we usually take for ‘assumed’, that is, already known. The aim is not the question to reach an answer, but the question as a device to deconstruct all assumed knowledge.
Bertrand Russell said: “We should cultivate philosophy not by the definitive answers we give to its questions, for as a general rule it is impossible to corroborate their truth. Philosophy should be cultivated by the questions themselves, because they broaden our conception of the possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and undermine the dogmatic security that prevents our mind from opening itself to speculation.”
Questioning is a method of thinking that prioritizes the search for the foundation first. If we believe that everything has a reason, then the question is about the foundation of skiing, about its causes. But does everything have to have a why? Why is skiing going one way or another? What is the driving force behind our curiosity? Perhaps it is to seek to abandon, momentarily, the everyday skiing in order to enter into the wonder of what surrounds us.
Philosophizing entails contemplating the rationale behind skiing, and it is this inquiry that causes us distress, as it prompts us to alter our perception of skiing by disrupting our perceived ‘normal’ functioning. Although the question may cause distress as it exposes us, the response to it provides reassurance. Upon obtaining an answer, new inquiries always arise.
Doing philosophy enables us to dismantle our beliefs in order to expose other perspectives on skiing. Through questioning, we exercise the deconstruction of convictions and evidence that we accept as obvious. We tend to respond to the question with a how, as that is what science demands: the mechanism of skiing. The how responds rather to the functioning of a thing, of a phenomenon. The why indicates the purpose of skiing. If we are unsure, we can ask ourselves, but if we are certain, we can ask ourselves as well.
A ski professional will be concerned with how to ski, while the philosopher will ask what skiing is, why it is so, or what skiing is for. A philosophical exercise is to question why something is the way it is, and to continue questioning our own answers with more ‘whys’ until we understand what we are getting at. During skiing, it is possible to inquire as to why we remain standing rather than why we lose our balance.
To philosophize is to ask ourselves the why of skiing, but it is the question that is distressing since it drives us to modify our perspective of skiing, interrupting our ‘normality’, that is, the supposed ‘good’ functioning of our skiing. Although the question is distressing because it exposes us, the answer to that question calms us, and when we find an answer, new questions always arise. However, how does a query that remains unanswered leave us?
Philosophy does not provide new information about what we already know, nor does it discover new things because it deals with things they are known. However, it helps us understand their nature. By questioning ourselves about what surrounds us, we can gain a deeper understanding of what we already know. In this quest for knowledge, philosophy seems to go against common sense, against what is already ‘known’.
Wisdom is not knowing everything or knowing how to ski everything, but understanding how to apply what we know to each situation in order to best deal with it. However, what is the significance of possessing the ability to ski? It is about experiencing sensations and emotions, whether they are positive or negative.
Skiing is both a recreational and athletic pursuit. It is founded on the striving towards the pleasure that can be obtained from gliding in a natural setting. Perhaps we can think of skiing as an eternal descent, a continuous sliding on the snow. When we ski, we think we are heading somewhere in particular but in reality, we are always sliding, moving.
The whole structure of a ski resort, its whole purpose is based on the desire to move, to slide down a mountain. It is true that, when we move, we repeat ourselves because what interests us in skiing is the repetition of sliding movements. This necessity to move by sliding generates a variety of services, including lifts, lodging, restaurants, ski schools and safety assistance, resulting in a comprehensive economy that revolves around sliding on snow.
Since when we ski, we are moving towards goals not yet reached, so it is reasonable to think that our ultimate goal is to develop our capabilities to reach our satiety in each descent. Now, is there another skiing after this one? One aspect of skiing is being cognizant of our desire for what we have yet to ski, for the skiing we have yet to achieve, as a state of constant dissatisfaction.
But, actually, what is skiing for? Well, it serves to achieve happiness and fulfillment as skiers. We all have a natural tendency towards gratifying and pleasing our desires; however, our insertion into a snowy mountain is not neutral or indifferent; it is a vital interaction built on a complex and fruitful exchange through which we existentially take part in actions that are not theoretical, but rather effective and reflective of our skiing reality. At that juncture, we select means, refine instruments, set goals for our skiing, and mold our conduct according to a must-be and a previously defined ideal.
Skiing is a recreational activity that involves sliding with constant changes in terrain, snow, weather, balance, direction and speed. Skiing is movement in motion, and its appeal lies in its inherent flow. We travel with vehicles (skis) on a fluid (snow) at a speed that tends to increase. Skiing is an activity that involves movement through sliding and is based on an active set of processing information from the environment.
It is a sport practice in which the combination of our motor behaviors in different situations requires the presence of all physical qualities and capacities we are endowed with. In each curve, a different sensation is experienced due to the variation of speed, snow, terrain contour, radius and rhythm changes. This results in the trapping of the activity and, at the same time, the motivating. It is not a repetitive practice under the same conditions, as they vary continuously.
Skiing involves occupying space and appropriating the snow, the slope, and the terrain. It represents a means of transport, and we are the drivers of our vehicles. It entails a coordinated action by individuals within a defined space, not only technically, but also ethically and morally, as we cooperate with one another, thereby enhancing the pleasure of our own behavior. To use a slope as a ‘snow consumer‘ is to insert ourselves into the social context of a mountain.
We must also be aware that skiing is educational. It teaches our body and our mind, educates the challenge, the ethics, and the morals. It allows us to get to know ourselves and the other people who are using the slopes. Moreover, it makes it possible to develop cognitive functions such as memory, reasoning and creativity.
For some, skiing may be interpreted as a search for utilitarianism or performance. Although the purpose of skiing is experiencing speed and technical movements, these skiers first seek to appropriate the snow cover. For others, skiing is the art of technical expression in the transition from immobility to movement through an imperceptible caress of the edges on the snow, under a subtle balance of decision in the delicacy of the movement and in the free expression of the technical gesture.
The philosophy of skiing is not an academic exercise but a daily experience. To study a skier is to examine ourselves. The issue is both experience and demand since, for the determined skier, everything skiable must be skied. It is interesting that we can ski for many years and continue to discover sensations that others have discovered before but which are new and inspiring to us. We become lifelong learners.
A significant inquiry in this matter: what constitutes proficient skiing? And the next question is: have we achieved it? Although it may be challenging to devise a universal description that satisfies the majority, it is imperative to bear in mind the Aristotelian notion of “good skiing,” which encompasses not only the pleasure of skiing, but also our ethical and moral conduct in terms of solidarity with others and respect for the environment.
The reasons why skiing philosophy can enrich us as skiers may include the following (adapted from Francisco Guerra):
– It gives us the opportunity to gain knowledge about ourselves by fostering our own identity and self-esteem.
– It teaches us to think, making us more autonomous, creative and original in our thinking.
– It strengthen us as responsible skiers, making us more curious, supportive and tolerant in our coexistence on the slopes.
– It opens us to cultural diversity, making us respectful and open to dialogue with other perspectives.
– It connects us with universal wisdom, making us more cultured, erudite and critical of our environment.
– It stimulates us to explore the meaning of skiing, making us free, conscious and transcendent in our skiing.
– It inspires us to be better people, orienting us towards the common good, justice, dignity and respect for all living beings.
– It challenges us to overcome our own limitations, thereby fostering a sense of courage, adventure and vision in our learning.
– It offers us intellectual and bodily pleasure, making us more playful, aesthetic and sensitive in our enjoyment of skiing.
– It prepares us for the future, making us more competitive, flexible and proactive in our development.
The question now is: how to apply philosophy to skiing? A skiing philosophy involves an explanation of the world of skiing and an understanding of ourselves as skiers, not only for what we are, but also for what we ought to be.
One could determine that philosophizing is a system of thought based on the search for what is real about a changing activity such as skiing. Indeed, is it possible to think about skiing, or does the skiing reality is escaping us because of its inherent becoming? Is it possible that, when we try to think about it, skiing has already changed? We think in the present of what happened in the past, so when we really think about it, it is already past.
In conclusion, if we can philosophize about so many subjects, why not about skiing? If we can appreciate everything from a philosophical standpoint, skiing can also be observed. If we were curious and asked ourselves questions, skiing would be even more enjoyable.
The reality of postmodern skiing is based on utility, while the philosophy about skiing breaks with that scheme, transforming our skiing reality and inviting us to question it, even if it seems unquestionable.
