Walking And Thinking

Some of the finest thinkers in history were enthusiastic walkers: Nietzsche, Rimbaud, Kant, Rousseau, Thoreau.  Rousseau says in his Confessions, when you walk all is possible. Your future is as open as the sky in front of you. And if you walk several hours, you can escape your identity. There is a moment when you walk several hours that you are only a body walking. Only that. You are nobody. You have no history. You have no identity. You have no past. You have no future. You are only a body walking. Nietzsche conceived all his books during his long walks. "It is only ideas gained from walking," he said, "that have any worth." Now a French philosopher, Frédéric Gros, a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris XII and the Institute of Political Studies, wrote a highly recommendable book about walking thinkers and thinking walkers: A Philosophy Of Walking.