The article considers philosophers’ and teachers’ scientific views on physical education and its impact on the personality’s all-round development; and formation of physical education as a science. Plato’s, Socrates’s, and Horace’s ideas of the importance of exercise and motor activity in different periods of people’s life have been identified; J. Comenius’s thoughts about the importance of properly selected, dosed physical exercises, their regularity in strengthening the children’s health, about their important function in terms of spiritual and ethical education have been revealed. J. - J. Rousseau’s thoughts on the importance of hardening of the body and senses and the formation of motor skills, moving games and daily walks in physical development; the idea of free upbringing of a comprehensively developed strong, skillful and intelligent personality have been given. J. Locke’s ideas about physical education from the person’s first days of life, about the study of refined manners, ballroom dancing, and other elements of gallantry, which externally distinguish “the noble” from the commoners, have been presented. Georges Demeny's thoughts on the importance of continuity of gymnastic exercises, the use of stretching exercises, relaxation, and movements to music have been revealed. The following ideas have been considered: the contribution to the theory of children’s physical education of such doctors and progressive figures as E. Pokrovskyi and E. Dementiev; Georges Demeny's gymnastic system of physical education with continuous classes, use of stretching exercises, relaxation and movements to music; the close connection of the mental education process with physical exercises of K. Ushynskyi; P. Lesgaft’s theory of physical education, based on the laws of harmony, gradualness and sequence of human development. The four groups of physical exercises and games by P. Lesgaft, and the idea of the folk games educational role have been proposed. The role of a teacher’s word, addressed to the child's mind and including sample mechanical imitation, an inseparable link between mental education and physical exercises, has been stated.
A Materialist Education