Philosophy of physical education and sports in Brazil: an analysis of the philosophical foundations in the work of Inezil Penna Marinho

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the historical origins of the Philosophy of Physical Education and Sports in Brazil. The writings of Inezil Penna Marinho, former Professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro between 1945 and 1984, were the first on this specific content in Brazil. Data collection resulted in six thematic categories, namely “Comments on Translated Fragments”, “Philology of Physical Education and Sports”, “Games, Hedonism and Transfiguration”, “Leisure and Axiology”, “Philosophy of Curricular Physical Education”, and “Metaphysics of Brain”. Marinho was an Eclectic, Foundationalist, and Casuistic philosopher. In his texts, Physical Education got ethical, axiological, aesthetical, epistemic, psychoanalytical, educational, political, and metaphysical attributes. Additionally, Marinho developed dialogues with authors from Aristotelianism, Platonism, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Evolutionism, Empirism, Freudism, Critical Theory, Hedonism, Platonic Theology, Stoicism, Cartesianism, and Bergsonism. Five classical issues appeared in his production: happiness as a transcendental demand; nature of the correspondence between language and reality; duality mind-body; historical conflict between freedom and domination; constitution of the subject. For him, gymnastics seemed to be higher in axiological importance than sports, games, and general physical activity. This result shows that the Philosophy of Physical Education and Sports in Brazil has its traditions.