身体感性論の改良主義（meliorism）と教育

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the meliorism in education, and somaesthetics as a clue, to discuss possibilities of new meliorism in education. Education essentially pursuits better changes of people. However, “betterness” is the ambiguous and controversial concept as already revealed in the history of education. For example, education uncritically accepted betterness from eugenics and violated human rights as a result. Also, the Enlightenment defined the state of ignorance one-sidedly. Nevertheless, it is impossible to get rid of a pursuit of betterness from education. Pursuit of betterness is also a major axis of Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics, a study concerned with the experience and the use of one’s body, not only the physical body but also soma as a holistic self.“ Meliorism” or betterness is a fundamental position and idea in somaesthetics. Meliorism in somaesthetics puts the somatic experience in its center. Also, it is a medium of optimism and pessimism to encourage action. This can be a clue to draw up a new meliorism in education. As a specific image of education, Toshio Nakamura’s theory and practices of physical education were considered. They suggest possibilities of meliorism in education from the viewpoint of somaesthetics.