Wednesday Wisdom

The 10,000 Steps Program is an initiative that encourages individuals to walk or step more each day, promoting physical activity and improving overall health. Health benefits from walking 10,000 steps daily is known to help cardiovascular, structural strength and improve mental health. It also can be a productive tool for thinking and reasoning. 10,000 steps became increasing popular with the growth of smart phones and wearable devices that tracks one’s steps. The benefit of a long walk is nothing new, in fact philosophers over time have known a walk is a great avenue for thought. Manpo-kei (万歩計) is the Japanese word for “10,000-step meter.” It comes from the 1960s, when a Japanese pedometer company, Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company, launched one of the first commercial step counters ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and this rounded off number seems to have stuck in the consciousness of people and more recently has become mainstream.

WHO?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712, Geneva, then an independent Calvinist republic aside from Switzerland. He lost his mother at birth which led to a to a difficult childhood. He was largely self-educated, and he later moved to Paris, becoming part of the Enlightenment intellectual scene alongside Voltaire and Diderot. He was a man of multitudes and disciplines, a philosopher, novelist, botanist, composer and political theorist.

When he was 16, he went for a walk outside of the gates of Geneva. Returning too late for entrance, he slept outside and his love of outdoors and nomadic life began. Years later on his 6-mile jaunt between Paris and Vincennes France, he stopped to rest and while contemplating his future he saw an advertisement for a prize for the best essay. His life forever changed as walked, thought and wrote. His essays/books Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (1750), Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755), The Social Contract (1762) and Émile, or On Education (1762) went on to inspire The America and French Revolution and ideals of democracy. Rousseau believed humans are naturally free and good but corrupted by society. His call for equality, self-rule, and education based on human nature made him one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment. His celebration of emotion, nature, and authenticity helped inspire Romanticism in literature, philosophy, and art inspiring the likes of English writers Coolidge, Woodsworth, Shelley and Byron. In the United States, he was influential to the Transcendentalism movement which was a 19th-century American philosophy that emphasized individual intuition, the spiritual truth of nature, and self-reliance over conformity and materialism. Luminary writers of America 19th century Transcendentalism philosophy include Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

2025 why do we care?

When we think viscerally, a feeling in your gut, it’s the body and mind working together to germinate an idea. It’s been said that Descartes was a philosopher of the mind” I think therefore I am” while Roseau was a philosopher of the body, joining mind and corporal together. Rousseau was so certain that physical movement awakened the mind that he famously declared it essential for clear and creative thought. He wrote “Walking is to achieve a balance between my body and my mind”. “When I walk, I achieve a total mental clarity that I can only find in this way”, “I find nothing so enjoyable as a walk in the countryside, and I would not trade my place in society for any of the treasures of which the world prides itself.” 

Rosseau was not the only thinker who walked, Socrates would walk the Agora encountering a debating anyone, Nietzche hiked the Alps, Thoreau walked Concord countryside while Thomas Hobbes was known for his walking stick which contained an inkwell to jot down his thoughts. In the biography on Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson explains that Jobs frequently invited people to join him on long walks, particularly around Palo Alto. Instead of sitting in a formal office, Jobs believed that walking side by side made conversations less confrontational and more creative, which he used both for brainstorming with colleagues and for interviewing potential hires. He also used these walks to work through difficult problems or decisions, often pacing at a brisk, energetic stride.

Does walking supply the right balance of stimulation and repose, exertion and idleness? A good walk, as many great minds have told us, is an elixir for both the body and mind.

And now you know...

Thanks, Dad, for the gift of curiosity!

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.