The 'Of Course' of Embodied Knowledge

It was a really interesting discussion last night and as Adesola said at the end, probably the most fluid conversation we have had. If nothing else the pandemic has given us a lot of practice at communicating through Skype and Zoom, which seemed to help us navigate the conversation. 

My area of research at the moment is embodied knowledge, not just how this applies to the dancer but to our whole life. Husserl tells us that:
'Every perceiving consciousness has this peculiarity, that it is the consciousness of the embodied self-presence of an individual object'. (Husserl 1931)
By this I understand him to mean that none of us are free-floating consciousnesses wafting through life, we are embodied in our living-selves. Everything we do and everything we learn is through our bodily experience, nothing comes to us just as thought, we understand things through the experiences we have.

These experiences lead to an embodied knowledge, for me this means, that what our body understands is equal or greater than the sum of the thoughts we have about this.

For example, take snooker players; with each shot they must embody the principles of mathematics, wikihow neatly demonstrates the many mathematical principles at work when taking a shot.

https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Pool-Like-a-Mathematician#Calculating-the-Angle-to-Strike-an-Object-Ball

However, most snooker players are not working out formulas before each shot, they take it based on their embodied knowledge of how to take that shot. If the snooker player decided to investigate the mathematical principles at play, they would think 'of course I understand that' because it would make sense to their embodied understanding of the game. Importantly the mathematical principles were developed out of human experience, the experience came first and the theory to articulate and understand it came second

It is exactly the same for philosophy. The theories we are grappling with now came out of lived experiences and the desire to explain the 'why, what and how' of that experience. What I find really fascinating about this MA learning journey is the 'Of Course' moments. These moments occur when I read something that articulates ideas I already understand through my lived experience, but possibly couldn't articulate them as well as Dewey, Husserl, Heidegger...
When I am tackling a text, which I think is new learning, sometimes instead of thinking 'oh yes now I understand' I think 'of course' because I intrinsically recognise my experience in the new learning. These texts and theories resonate with me and form the framework that underpin the ideas I am now researching.

Everyone's MA journey will be different and personal, I am endlessly fascinated to hear all of your ideas and experiences - Thank you