Philosophy of physical culture in Poland

The paper contains a synthetic study of Polish thinkers' statements concerning issues connected with broadly understood physical culture. The author has paid special attention to the development and formation of philosophical reflection on physical culture and of the philosophy of physical culture in the strict sense. Because of that reason he took into account: a) historical or contemporary reflection appearing on margins of other research subjects constituting main currents of given thinkers' interests, b) philosophical aspects of views of physical education theoreticians, c) statements of philosophers of physical culture. He has pointed out in the text which issues from the field of physical culture attracted Polish philosophers' interest; he paid attention to considerations from the area of the philosophy and theology of the body underlying reflection on physical culture; to relations taking place between the philosophical thought and selected forms of physical culture and to connections between man and nature and culture. He has also discussed views of theoreticians of physical education and theoreticians of physical culture from the turn of the 19th and the 20th century, conceptions of physical education and sport in the interwar period as well as contemporary statements concerning natural, humanist and health-related aspects of physical education. A lot of attention has also been paid to characterizing and describing the development of the philosophy of physical culture in Poland - both according to its independent and Christian (Catholic and Protestant) interpretation.