FOREWORD

In our professional circles, in the context of the curtailment of our recreational training, a suggestion was recently made as to why we should teach philosophy.
Surprised, I could not react suddenly, but I kept thinking about whether we can live our lives without consciousness, emotions, worldly, spiritual concepts.

A dear colleague of mine, now, I would say, my teacher, the Chinese-born New Zealand professor Peter Chen, published in his book Leisure and Transformation: 'leisure is the mother of philosophy'. This is how he explained that since the emergence of the first civilisations, humanity has been searching for the meaning of life through nature and social change. According to the ancient philosopher Aristotle, "only he who observes from the beginning the development and evolution of civilisations can contribute to the development of civilisations and the fulfilment of human life". This requires, first and foremost, "to know oneself, so that one can become wise". It is still relevant and instructive today that we can achieve happiness if, in his opinion, we "do not only seek more, but develop our capacities to appreciate less". Perhaps this is a warning to us that "in our material world, we should regard the development of body and mind as the ultimate goal, over and above material values" (Nicola Tesla).

I was also warned about philosophical thinking by a renowned American professor, Christopher Edginton, while talking to him about my model of body-functional recreation theory. In his view, the way of life and the quality of life of a human being is not only realised and developed in a well-functioning body, but also mostly by phenomena independent of us, often beyond us. As nature and society change around us, so do values and needs, and our way of thinking and acting constantly changes in response to these changes, and we adapt our lives accordingly.

In this context, I often ask myself the question: is there a conscious way of life without a philosophical charge, where we do not see and feel the meaning of our actions, our relationship to the environment and others. I do not believe that we can do without the results of this discipline to develop the field of recreation. In fact, we should give priority to its teaching in our universities in order to promote the importance of our discipline in a more informed way.

Dr. habil. Miklós Bánhidi
Széchenyi István University, Győr, professor
World Leisure Organization Board Member