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A Philosophy of Walking

Gros, Frédéric
Publisher:  Verso Books
Date Written:  08/04/2014
Year Published:  2014  
Pages:  240pp   ISBN:  978-1781682708
Resource Type:  Book

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.

Abstract:  In A Philosophy of Walking, 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.


Table of Contents

Walking is not a sport
Freedoms
Why I am such a good walker - Nietzsche
Outside
Slowness
The Passion for escape - Rimbaud
Solitude
Silences
The walker's waking dreams - Rosseau
Eternities
Conquest of the Wilderness - Thoreau
Energy
Pilgrimage
Regeneration and presence
The cynic's approach
States of well-being
Melancholy wandering - Nerval
A daily outing - Kant
Strolls
Public gardens
The urban flaneur
Gravity
Elementa;
Mystic and politician - Gandhi
Repetition
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