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Velosophie, a weeklong discussion series of the Illinois Humanities Council in partnership with the League of Illinois Bicyclists, provides cyclists with the opportunity to flex their mental muscle after a long day of physical exercise. As they bike the Grand Illinois Trail and Park Ride, participants consider the relationship of their bodies and their minds, meeting nightly at campsites to discuss novels, short stories, poems, and philosophical texts on themes relating to the experience of being out on the road, on a bicycle, pushing through exhaustion and learning to embrace solitude.

Lewis does admit, however, that "people don't like reading philosophy, ever," and athletes might seem like the least likely candidates for students of, say, Heidegger, whose essay "The Question Concerning Technology" was a reading selection in 2005. But Lewis and his collaborators, Mark Rockwell and Adam Davis, were determined to make philosophy texts an integral part of the program.

Physical and mental exertion are more than just parallels; each can make the other a richer experience. Riding a bike for five or six hours a day, even if it's "not Tour de France speed," is "hard work," Lewis says, "and there's some reason why you find that to be a valuable experience."

Part of Lewis's mission with Velosophie is "taking the questioning spirit into places where you wouldn't expect the humanities," and some of Velosophie's most enthusiastic participants would never otherwise have ventured into the unknown terrain of Kafka's stories or Czeslaw Milosz's poetry.