Coralie Camilli, substitute philosophy professor at the University of Corsica and French boxing champion, published L’art du combat (Puf) in 2020, Jours de grâce et de violence (Vérone éditions), and Insulaires (Vérone éditions) in 2023.

Halves, Degrees and Perfection

Each discipline has required for its mastery a wholeness, pushed to the extreme.

To emphasize from the outset that the path is not “exploded” or random, but planned and defined in order to push the limits of the mind, then those of the body, to their ends. No moderation. Only degrees. Let me explain.

To master a discipline presupposes in its learning a principle of wholeness. This ultimately means nothing other than: To will. This is already what is called in philosophy a “performative act.” To will is always to will more than anything, it is to devote oneself to what one wills, it is also to renounce everything that is not on the path one traces, it is to set aside the superfluous, the inessential, the secondary, the superficial, the non-necessary.

If such a definition of the will seems extreme it is because it distinguishes itself from simple inclination, wish, desire, longing, or whatever else.

To will means to concentrate and devote oneself to what one does, it is to be ready to climb mountains, to cross oceans, to endure solitude perhaps, to stand at the edge of chasms and to walk near abysses, to be ready to live a thousand lives and to suffer a thousand deaths: To will, in the proper sense of the term, is always to will against everything and sometimes also: against everyone! …Even sometimes: against ourselves. Sacrifices and self-denial are required.

Thus, if one thinks the will as primary, with all its wholeness and its demands, it is up to capacities to follow it! It is then that one surpasses oneself, and that capacities become qualities. That wishes become accomplishments. That the possible becomes real.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)