What knowledge do we possess regarding skiing? What is the true reality of skiing? How do we come to know it? In this regard, we will discuss various philosophical currents regarding the possibility of skiing knowledge.
The concept of existentialism can be interpreted as the perception of one’s own existence, a fundamental experience of feeling ourselves skiing. Under the existentialist conception we, as skiers, are the center of the mountain and everything else is subordinated to us and evaluated by us. Existentialism emphasizes authentic individualism, rejecting the search for approval from others or conformity to the masses.
Existence precedes essence, which implies that we construct ourselves as skiers through choices and experiences, and that we are the sum of our choices and experiences.
When skiing it is imperative to have opportunities to choose and decide. Without these opportunities, we would lose our existence as skiers. Although we are free to externalize our actions and behaviors, this freedom does not allow us to ignore our responsibilities to others.
The doctrine of dualism asserts that there exists solely a distinction between the physical and the mental. For dualism, we are a mind and a body, represented by the classic “I think, therefore I am,” which in our case would be “I think, therefore I ski” or “I use my mind, therefore my body.” The dualistic problem of idea-matter or mind-body has been a constant, but in contemporary philosophy, dualism is rejected by proposing a monism, unifying mind and body.
Monism is the belief that there exists only a singular form. A version of monism is materialism, or physicalism, which indicates that all that exists is physical.
The essence of skiing philosophy can also be viewed as idealism, as contemplating skiing involves approaching it with the radiance of ideal skiing. When seeking to attain its truth, we do so through the idea. We are not referring to a specific technique or descent but to the whole concept of skiing.
Our skiing reality is a continuous movement from one stage to another. Each descent is a moment of validation that leads to the idea of skiing. A situation is generated by excluding a previous situation and creating a new one.
In Hegelian idealism, a descent advances from a thesis, that is to say, an initial affirmation which faces another different descent, an antithesis, thus arriving at a conclusion that surpasses both: the synthesis and so on. We can then affirm that skiing is a continuous ‘becoming’ of descents, each of which contains an idealism: the search for the ideal descent.
According to empiricism, sensible experience is the only source of knowledge, i.e., we acquire skiing knowledge after experiencing it. Let us recall the statement that the intellect processes data supplied by the senses and that nothing can be accessed without first passing through our senses.
Empirical knowledge entails confronting the realities of our experiences through observation. This position is contrary to rationalism, which holds that there is a tabula rasa in which there is nothing and that, in our case, skiing knowledge is produced by an external sensible experience and an internal reflective one.
Our evolution as skiers comes from our processing of sensible information. Consequently, we could say that skiing is total empiricism, since what we know about skiing is grounded in our sensible impressions and the ideas that result from them.
One form of empiricism is associationism, in which skiing knowledge arises from associations between sensations, which then form universal judgments. Rationalism, on the other hand, holds that knowledge arrives through reason and thought and separates thought from sensible experience. According to this line of thinking, skiing rational knowledge is acquired mentally, without the necessity of observation, thus emphasizing the proactive role of our mind, of our thinking-skier’s-self, who, in the face of these data, grants prominence to reason.
Our intellect, in a certain manner, constructs our skiing, resulting in sensible data being merely raw material. However, as Plato taught, the senses are highly deceptive. Therefore, it is imperative to filter sensible experience through reason.
Intellectualism occupies an intermediate position between the activity of reason and sensible experience. It is a synthesis of rationalism and empiricism, acknowledging that it accepts that both, sensible experience and reasoning, are essential components of skiing knowledge.
Dogmatism holds that the problem does not exist and asserts that, from a somewhat naive and optimistic perspective, all skiing knowledge is achievable. The dogmatic skier is someone naive who has not considered the certainty of his sensible experience, or who affirms that he can ‘know’ how to ski with full certainty, without the need to analyze his skiing, substantiate it or confront it with reality, exhibiting an exaggerated subjectivity.
The dogmatic skier persistently asserts his personal opinions as if they were unquestionable, exhibits rigidity in his thinking, and refuses to consider alternative explanations.
