The education of the drive in the running exercise of Villaume

Peter Villaume (1746-1825) was a philathropist who aimed at acquiring "power" through bodily education. This paper focuses on his theory of bodily exercise, especially running exercise, that provided the "power". Villaume considered that "power" was "the drive, the rapidity of the blood stream, and the sensitization of nerves", and that the strength of the muscle and skeleton was the "tool" of the power. Thus bodily education for humans must not be to train "the power of the muscle and skeleton", but to activate "the drive", to make the blood stream more rapid, and to sensitize the nerves. Villaume's method of bodily exercise was based on this approach to physical education, whereas GutsMuths's method was based on acquiring "the power of the muscle and skeleton". I therefore compared Villaume's method with GutsMuths's method of bodily exercise with reference to running. I concluded that "running" as defined by Villaume was exercise based on practice in his studies on "Philathropen". However, when we read descriptions about "running" by Villaume from the viewpoint of his theory of exercise, with the purpose of fostering "power", we notice some characteristics that are different from traditional opinions. Villaume considered it important to develop certain kinds of power through exercise. According to Villaume, it was important for children to experience "the realization" of "running" under various conditions. That is to say, children would be able to realize the progress of their own "powers". Thus, it seems that Villaume was eager to cultivate the "power" of children through running. On the other hand, GutsMuths's approach did not require a teacher to think about differences in individual levels of power and the speed of improvement in exercising. GutsMuths instructed the teacher to pay attention to "height" and "time" or "distance" when teaching running. And it seemed that the purpose of running was to improve the record for time and distance, making children run "as fast and long" as possible. Today when the philosophy of "the power to live" is fashionable, it is possible to put some meaning to Villaume's method of bodily exercise based on "power".