Fighting with Reality: Considering Mark Johnson's Pragmatic Realism Through Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do Method

Author

Alexander David Miller, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

12-1-2015

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Anderson, Douglas

Abstract

This dissertation considers the supportive and complementary relation between Mark Johnson’s embodied realism and Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do as a philosophical practice. In exploring this relationship, the emphasis on one’s embodiment condition and its relationship with metaphor and self-expression are the primary focus. First, this work involves providing an introduction to and an exploration of Johnson’s understanding of embodiment and his pragmatic realism with its foundation in metaphorical expression. Second, Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do serves as a kind of exemplification and possible case of effective metaphorical development founded upon a desire for metaphorical-based self-expression of a combat philosophy of embodiment. Third, an analysis of the convergence between the use of metaphor-based embodiment in Lee’s and Johnson’s philosophies is considered. In this respect, both views serve to promote communication and evolution of self-expression as a consequence of certain metaphors. In the final area of analysis, Peirce’s phenomenology offers an understanding of how Lee’s and Johnson’s metaphor-based embodiment provides a fuller context and awareness of the phenomena of embodiment.