Julián Marías in his book Three views of human life (Salvat, Spain, 1971, p. 93), says: “Empiricism is, literally, a ‘thinking with one’s feet'”.
Julián Marías uses the word “empiricism” to mean -perhaps- that it is a current of thought that is far from being an acceptable discipline for the creative and cognitive functions of the human being (Posts THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART I; THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE), since it provides us with results coming from experience and not by reasoning, implying (?) that one must think and reason with the mind and for this there are other currents that are based on this principle. (*)
Perhaps this is what Marías wanted to convey with the word “literally”, however, regardless of his philosophical or etymological reasons, his “ironic” locution is very valid, since the feet play a fundamental role in making our mind work better.
I am going to base myself on the latter to elucidate and clarify the subject.
My thesis in this respect is the following. When the human being stood upright on his lower limbs, he generated a vertical flow of force and energy, from his feet to his head, following a perpendicular line to the ground on which he was walking.
According to anthropological experts, before this position, the hominid ancestors of “Homo Sapiens” moved on their four limbs and this flow ran through their body as shown in the following image, avoiding (eluding) the perpendicularity, as they denied it (they blocked it, limited it, inhibited it, hindered it, avoided it, prevented it, prevented it) with their transverse, almost horizontal position. At the present time, this can be confirmed and validated as an absolute truth.
The angle θ, in the best of hominid positions, was close to 45°, whereas when they rose and became Homo Sapiens that angle reached 90°.
The increase in brain mass and IQ, the same circle of anthropological experts, associate it with the fact that he was able to free his hands and transform himself into Homo Faber (Future Post HOMO FABER AND HIS TRASCENDENT WALK). This is also true. However, it was that vertical flow that developed his brain with the greatest efficiency and greatness. My thesis is: his verticality generated a flow -circulatory- from his feet to his head, creating a kind of fountain of creation and intelligence and with a more vigorous power and strength.
In the following figure we can observe the evolution of the flow line, until it reaches the perpendicular.
This hominid rose up in the same way that plants rise up when they fall to the ground for a certain reason, keeping themselves alive, looking for that perpendicularity.
This is very often observed in coconut palms, on the seashore, and especially in young plants, when they are blown to the ground by strong winds, because their trunks bend and do not break, and their roots remain stuck to the earth (or sand). After a short time, they begin to rise at the top.
It is a living and moving spectacle that we can observe in nature.
It is often explained that these palms seek the sun, and it is true, but the fundamental reason is that it is the position which enables them to grow strong and secure, but the great thing is that they live longer and more vigorously in this way.
Let us return to our thoughts on Empiricism, if one who is experiencing can think (to paraphrase Lessing: “I prefer to return to my path, if one who is walking can have a path”).
The mind allows us to reason and imagine – among other functions – which leads us to estimate how circumstances – of whatever kind – will present themselves in the future.
Experience is what we got from our actions, because we decided to act or were forced to act. Those acts represent attempts at reasoning, thinking or some other function of our mind, even though they are qualities of our brain. Hence we can conclude that the empirical is the real, it is supported by experience. In other words, and coming closer to the epistemological: the empirical is the knowledge obtained a posteriori.
In one of my writings, on 17 May 1991, I expressed: “I do not know of other things, but my spirit dwells in my hands. Of my intellect I do not know, but my spirit dwells in my hands”, referring exclusively to my artistic creation, to my creative spirit; many years later, in December 2020, reading what Rousseau wrote: “I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I stop thinking; my mind works only with my legs” (O’Mara in his book In Praise of Walking: Rousseau, J. J. and Cohen, J. M., 1953, The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Penguin), oriented me to the fact that my mind dwells in my legs and feet, referring to my thoughts, my reasoning. I had already acquired this understanding through my deeper studies and analysis of walking, which I carried out during the last months of 2005. What Rousseau said helps me to reaffirm it.
The feet are bellows [feet = bellows that drive the flow of blood and nutrients to all parts of the human body] that belong to the lower extremities and work together with the rest of their constituent parts (components): legs, thighs, knees, ankles, toes. They supply various elements and substances to the rest of the body, supporting it and supplying it with blood and other nutrients that the body generates itself.
The more we use our feet while walking, the more effective is this blood supply to the whole physical body and the brain.
While it is the heart that has the function of propelling the blood to all parts of the body, the feet are its main helpers – walking – to achieve this in a more efficient, harmonious and relaxed (restful) way (**), which without this help the heart would usually work harder to achieve.
(**) Blood is propelled to all parts of the body by the heart, which is the engine of blood circulation. The heart is a strong, steady muscle that pumps blood through a system of arteries and veins. The heart is divided into four chambers: the two atria and the two ventricles. The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it into the right ventricle, which propels it to the lungs to be oxygenated. The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it into the left ventricle, which pushes it out to the rest of the body. From the heart, blood flows into the arteries, which are the blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to different parts of the body. The blood travels through the arteries to the capillaries, the smallest and thinnest blood vessels that allow the blood to interact with the body’s cells. The deoxygenated blood returns from the tissues through the veins, which carry it back to the heart to be oxygenated again. In short, the heart propels blood to all parts of the body through a system of arteries and veins, allowing the constant circulation of blood and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the body’s cells.
This bellows energy that is generated by the feet, as they rise and fall while walking, is similar to the energy that trees generate to move the substances they process up from the root level to the highest leaf canopies [bellows that drive the flow or sap of plants].
In Future Post WALKING WITH THE TREES, I have made certain analyses and calculations, obtaining the amounts and conclusions that are set out below. These are data that can be considered definitive, however, they may suffer some slight adjustments from this moment to the date of publication, which I have scheduled for March 15, 2024.
Transpiration of plants is the vital (capital, crucial, fundamental, essential, central, strategic) moment when they start to transfer and deliver their nutrients to us. In the whole process of generation of nutrients that have allowed them to feed themselves over a period of time, this point of elimination of excesses or waste represents an essential function – recurrent and enduring – for the survival of all living beings on the planet (***).
(***) Trees, as has been defined, do not dispose of a specific volume of easily defined surplus. The process of nutrient generation in trees involves photosynthesis, in which leaves capture energy from the sun and use it to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. The glucose is used for the growth, reproduction and maintenance of the tree. In this process, trees also produce waste substances, such as additional oxygen or small amounts of organic compounds that are not used by the tree. In addition, they take up other substances from the soil through their roots. However, these quantities are minimal compared to the amount of nutrients that the tree produces – by taking them from its environment and the subsoil – and uses for its growth. The volume of waste produced by a tree cannot be calculated in a precise and generalised way, as it varies according to various factors, such as tree species, age, environmental conditions and nutrient availability. In addition, tree litter may also include fallen leaves, dead branches or uneaten fruit, which contribute to nutrient cycling and soil fertility. The process of nutrient generation is complex and dynamic, which makes it difficult to calculate, but certain results were reached.
According to the results obtained in the aforementioned post, this transpiration or elimination reaches 0.004729911 m3/hectare/day, which on a global scale represents an emulsion of 4,060,000,000 x 0.004729911 = 19.2 million cubic meters that are spread in the earth’s atmosphere by plant transpiration every day.
The following table shows the power generated by trees – of different heights – in a normal climatic state, during their lifetime; and the comparison with the power generated by the feet of a human being, when walking a given number of kilometers or miles.
According to the results obtained in the same Post, the FORCE generated by our feet in their performance when walking, combined mechanically with the rest of the components of the lower limbs, equivalent to a power of 9 Watts or 0.012 HP, is required to perform a normal walk of 30.45 Kilometers or 18.91 Miles. This performance is equal to the power generated by a water pump during 60 seconds of work. A 27.5 meter high tree manages to generate the same power equivalent of 9 Watts in 9.45 days of its life.
The average lifespan of a tree is 30 years, so it will be able to perform this operation 1,158 times during its lifetime, releasing its beneficial substances into its environment.
The ability of trees to take all the substances they process – RED ARROWS – from the soil by means of their roots and from the environment with their leaves, trunks and stems, up to the highest parts of them, and it is the leaves, in greater quantity, – but also their stems and trunks -, by which the substances already processed, dislodge them to the outside environment, disseminating them to places – with the help of the air and the wind – up to hundreds of kilometers away from their fixed place, is pointed out.
This simile of the generation of Force and Power of walking with the trees is the basis for the mechanism that occurs with the feet and which gave the Post its name, since it is this quality that makes the brain function better.
Finally, I would like to write down (transcribe) the 4th Principle of the WALK-RWD system, which has been developed through the analysis of the function that the feet have and develop in the human body, together with the results that we have obtained in other Posts that we will present in the future.
4th Principle of Upright Verticality
“Every human being must walk permanently achieving a position of uprightness to optimally perform the tasks and functions as Homo Faber and Homo Sapiens Sapiens, to promote, strengthen, expand and increase them “.
(*) Webster’s dictionary defines Empiricism as follows: “1 a) a former school of medical practice founded on experience without the aid of science or theory, b) quackery, charlatanry; 2 a) the practice of emphasizing experience especially of the sense of the practice or method of relying upon observation, experimentation, or induction rather than upon intuition, speculation, deduction, dialectic, or other rationalistic means of the pursuit of knowledge b) a tenet arrived at empirically; 3 a) the theory associated especially with the British philosophers Locke, Berkeley and Hume that all knowledge originates in experience, b) logical empiricism, radical empiricism, or scientific empiricism.”