A Philosophy of WalkingThis “passionate affirmation of the simple life” explores how walking has influenced history’s greatest thinkers—from Henry David Thoreau and John Muir to Gandhi and Nietzsche (Observer) “It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” —Nietzsche In this French bestseller, leading thinker and philosopher Frédéric Gros charts the many different ways we get from A to B—the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble—and reveals what they say about us. Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau’s eager seclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury, while Nerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walked in order to think, while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write. In contrast, Kant marched through his hometown every day, exactly at the same hour, to escape the compulsion of thought. Brilliant and erudite, A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other. |
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
Outside | 31 |
The Passion for Escape Rimbaud | 39 |
Solitudes | 53 |
Silences | 59 |
The Walkers Waking DreamsRousseau | 65 |
Eternities | 81 |
States of WellBeing | 139 |
Melancholy WanderingNerval | 147 |
A Daily OutingKant | 153 |
Strolls | 159 |
Public Gardens | 169 |
The Urban Flåneur | 175 |
Gravity | 183 |
Elemental | 189 |
Conquest of the WildernessThoreau | 87 |
Energy | 104 |
Regeneration and Presence | 121 |
The Cynics Approach | 129 |
Mystic and PoliticianGandhi | 193 |
Repetition | 207 |
Further Reading | 219 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolutely Arthur Rimbaud become body boredom breathing called Charleville civil disobedience Classics climbing colours Compostela crowd Cynic Dharma Bums Diogenes Diogenes Laertius dreams earth elemental energy eternal everything experience eyes fatigue feel feet flâneur foot forests Friedrich Nietzsche Gandhi gaze Gérard de Nerval happy Harar heart Henry David Thoreau images immense Jean-Jacques Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jerusalem journey landscape leave legs light living long walks longer means mind Mohandas K morning Mount Kailash mountains movement murmur Nature Nerval ness never night once pace Paris pass paths peyote Philokalia philosopher pilgrim pilgrimage pleasure prayer presence promenade pure repetition returned rhythm Rimbaud road Rousseau route satyagrahis silence slow slowly social solitude soon soul speed stop stroll stroller there's things thought tion took trees truth walker wandering wind writing wrote