Politics and Pleasure: The Philosophy of Physical Education Revisited

Abstract

Humans unquestionably derive pleasurable physical sensations from different types of movement. Yet, remarkably, there is a deafening silence around the subject in the literature on human movement. This article comprises three parts. First, I outline prevailing conceptualizations of pleasure as they relate to physical activity in the social sciences and biology. Second, I sketch the history of physical activity in modernity which I describe as a process of de-pleasuring, and third, I discuss the prejudice against pleasure in the academy and in state policy. In the conclusion, I propose pleasure as a potential pillar of disciplinary coherence in physical education.