AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Existing conceptions of sport’s role in education have focused on the development of specific moral values or contextualising sports culture through philosophical discussion. While worthy and important goals, they retain the subservience of the physical to the mental, leading to the inherent tension between the instinctual and rational capacities of a moral agent. By treating sport similarly to artistic practice, we can bring the rational and emotional aspects of the soul together in an embodied context. Through this, not only is the moral agent free to make choices outside of the dictates of moral law or instinct, but they reach a state of contemplation of what it means to be moral through beauty.

By then linking this harmonisation with meditative practices, as espoused by Yuasa Yasuo and the idea of the unity of mind and body as something to be cultivated rather than as innate fact of human experience, I contend that a modern physical education program must centre this idea for it to offer a unique perspective on moral education in modern education systems. Finally, I will offer suggestions as to how this may look in a practical sense, and how this idea of harmonisation may look in practice.