Having been invited to a conference with the title of “The Pedagogics of Unlearning,” the first challenge I faced was to work out how to make sense of and respond to the rhetorical contortions of this title itself.1 Why this phrasing? What conceptualization did it imply? What could the conference organizers possibly have been thinking in coming up with such a phrase and setting it up as the very organizing “idea” of the conference, as the rhetorico-conceptual challenge for speakers to (...) tackle? “The Pedagogics of Unlearning” is definitely an unusual and awkward phrase, for what may quite possibly be an unusual, awkward, or even impossible formulation. To make sense of it I had to translate it, expand it... (shrink)

This essay builds from an analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do to an analysis of the current state of academic scholarship generally and martial arts studies scholarship specifically. For the sake of a more comprehensive understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of jeet kune do, and in particular its affinities with a philosophical tradition traced by Stanley Cavell under the heading of perfectionism, this essay brings the philosophical writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ayn Rand into (...) contact with Lee’s writings during the time that he spent formulating his martial arts philosophy. Additionally, this essay uses the philosophical insights of Emerson, Rand, and Lee to challenge longstanding academic dogma vis-à-vis poststructuralist philosophy, the methods of academic intervention, and the nature of philosophical argumentation. Though pitched as a debate regarding the content and the status of Bruce Lee and his combative philosophy, this essay endeavors to inspire scholars to (re)examine their conceptions of Bruce Lee, martial arts, and martial arts studies. (shrink)