Paper short abstract:

In Aikido, meaning emanates from movement itself without representation. Employing the non-dualist potentiality embedded in the body, a social world is formed. The students of Aikido, in this non-reflective perfect praxis, transform themselves and the world as they move, while annihilating violence.

Paper long abstract:

The body needs to reflect in order to study, learn, and embody movement, to become proficient in praxis. This reflection does not utilize words or other signs. But the body needs to stop reflecting in order to achieve perfect praxis, to master that praxis. By looking at the pacifistic Japanese martial art Aikido, I suggest that in movement as a form of 'I do' lies potentialities of sense making without representation, of forming a social world directly through the moving body. Aikido creates a world of perpetual rolling movement without acceleration, without slowing down, a movement that could go on forever, where the two opponents continuously exchange roles. It employs the potentiality embedded in the body of compiling all semiotic levels including words and signs into a non-dualist (non-representative) somatic reality. Thus, non-reflective perfect praxis permits transformation. The participants of Aikido transform themselves and the world as they move, while annihilating violence.