Thoreau Philosophy
Applications of Thoreau's Philosophy Against the Rule of Law

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient." This philosophy may seem strange to current ears and eyes, given the current media stress upon American patriotism and loyalty. However, Thoreau believed that even the laws of a free society and government such as the United State's should not be reified to such an extent that they were obeyed unquestioningly, subverting the very reasons that those laws were put into place.

Decisions and actions, in contrast, should be more defined by the internal moral compass of the individual, rather than upon the letter. In case this seems to radical a prescription for a society to follow, it is sobering to reflect upon our own nation's legal and political, as well as social history, in light of the legacy of slavery that Thoreau protested.…...

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Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. "Speech: 4th of July."

Jefferson, Thomas. "Excerpts from Notes on the State of Virginia."

Joseph, Chief. "Oration -- Concession Speech to Sherman."

Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." Parts One and Two.

Journalize Literature
Thoreau is thinking that reality as truly seen is forever new and more than words can say. So what do you think? Do we need contemplation or something like it in order to better understand who we are? Or should we be satisfied with Zweckrationalist (eber) and go about setting and achieving measurable objectives in a calculable world?

Henry David Thoreau was many things, philosopher, existentialist, and pioneer of the environmental movement. A constant theme is his many writings is his belief that everyone was responsible for going out into the world, into the natural world, and finding their true identity through this interaction. He believed that no one could be an authentic version of their self until they made this external version of an internal struggle. In the piece "here I Lived, and hat I Lived For," Thoreau discusses his venture into the natural world to find a suitable…...

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Works Cited:

Miller, Jr., Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz. New York, NY: Harper Collins. 2006. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. The Portable Thoreau. Ed. Carl Bode. New York, NY: Viking Penguin,

2012. Print.

This speaks quite clearly to the different attitudes the two authors had about what to do with this hypocritical, greedy, and foolish society. Thoreau argues for revolution in a way that Twain almost certainly would have avoided. Instead, Twain's protagonist Huck says that the best way to deal with direct violence and injustice from people like Pap "is to let them have their own way." To Thoreau, acceptance of such injustice was the same as performing the injustice. For Twian, society is to late to be saved; remembering that he wrote his book over a decade after the close of the Civik War and the end of slavery suggests that Twain saw his society as basically unchanged by this major event. Rather than changing society, Huck (and presumably Twain's) solution is simply to leave it behind.

This fundamental difference between the two author's views on the irrationalities, absurdities, and injustices of…...

Plato, Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau each had widely differing ideals relating to the government, its necessity and the responsibility of citizens towards this government. These views were all closely related to each philosopher's personal ideals regarding how best to live their lives with the greatest of integrity. This also applies to life and politics today. Each individual is free to decide whether to take civil action against their government or not. As Martin Luther King asserts, it is a matter of conscience. Each philosophy mentioned above will then be examined for its applicability to the issue of the war in Iraq and the responsibility of citizens to take action.
Plato's work focuses on the philosopher Socrates, who has been condemned to death for "corrupting the youth" of Athens. Crito attempts to encourage his escape, but Aristotle refuses, on the grounds of his own personal set of ethics. For…...

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Bibliography

Childress, James F. Civil disobedience and political obligation; a study in Christian social ethics. New Haven: Yale univ. press, 1971.

Daube, David. Civil disobedience in antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press, 1972.

King, Martin Luther. "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

Plato. "From Crito."

Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience," with these words:
heartily accept the motto, -- 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- 'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient."

While Thoreau is talking about a minimalist kind of government that intrudes as little as possible into the individual's life, the words are almost anarchistic, and it strikes me that what Thoreau is really demonstrating is one of the most remarkable things about the United States: near total freedom of speech. When it comes to Thoreau's vision of…...

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Bibliography

Gordon, Jessica, and Woodlief, Ann, eds. 1999. "Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. Accessed via the Internet 11/22/02.  http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil

American History, And Political Theory
The role of morals and religious values in a nation's economic activity.

In our nation, the current politically correct cry is to separate moral issues from the public arena. The affairs of church and state should be forever separated. The associated corollary, one which is likely not spoken but clearly assumed by those who propagate the separation doctrine is that religious thoughts, morals, and ethics should also not be present in the market place. The assumption is that moral reasoning is only a bigoted and discriminatory belief system which seeks separate people, and is therefore harmful to the harmonious development of a nation.

However, this atheistic belief system was neither supported nor taught by those who built the context of our national heritage. Those who came to this country were devoted sojourners from many different faiths. Most of those who settled in the original colonies each understood that…...

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Bibliography

Jefferson, Thomas. The Declaration of independence, Philadephia, 1775.

United States Magazine and Democratic Review,1837-1859,

R.W. Emerson, "Politics," 1844

Winthrop John. A model of Christian Charity. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, 1838), 3rd series 7:31-48.)1630. accessed 30 April 2004. Website:  http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html .

Thoreau, Stowe, Melville and Douglas: Reflections on Slavery
Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beacher Stowe, Herman Melville and Fredrick Douglass all opposed the intuition of slavery in the United States in the middle of the nineteen century. This matter deeply divided the nation and ultimately led to the Civil ar in 1860. hile southerner's saw the matter as a state's rights issue, abolitions framed the debate from a moral perspective. Most people in the south felt that slaves were their property, and it was for them to decide the moral and religious right of the slavery question. They saw the abolition of slavery as a threat to their very way of life. Abolitionists believed there was no distinction between slavery and liberty, a nation that condoned slavery could not be truly free (Foner). Each of these writers presented their views of slavery in there literary works.

Discussion

Henry David Thoreau

On the Duty of Civil…...

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Works Cited

Douglass, Fredrick. Douglass: Autobiographies. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. Print.

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty, Vol. 2, 3rd Ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print

Melville, Herman. "Benito Cereno." The American Short Story. Thomas K. Parkes (ed.). New York: Budget Books Inc., 1994. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beacher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.

Thoreau's Resistance To Civil Government
This is a paper discussing the Henry David Thoreau's essay 'Resistance to Civil Government' and arguing that his ideas represent the extreme individualism and anarchist ideology.

The renowned American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau is considered to be one of the most influential minds in the American thought and literature. Thoreau had not only great influence on American thought but also on the politics of the world, some of his ideas and concepts that he developed were the most original political doctrines devised by American thinker. We appreciate this more, considering the fact that he was an unconventional thinker. At the heart of Thoreau political philosophy was the concept of individualism, he was a supreme individualist and championed the human spirit against materialism and social conformity. His most famous book, "Walden" 1854 is an eloquent account of his experiment in near solitary living in close harmony…...

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Bibliography

Elizabeth Hall Witherell & Elizabeth Dubrulle, "The Life and Times of Henry D. Thoreau" 1999

http://www.niulib.niu.edu/thoreau/bexhibit.htm

Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience - "Webtext" with detailed annotations and study notes by Jessica Gordon & Ann Woodlief at Virginia Commonwealth University, 1999

 

The ideal would be for human beings to be free, perfectly free, but this is not possible, Rousseau notes, given that a totally savage and free world means that the strongest person dominates the weaker people around him -- and the strongest will eventually establish a tyranny to serve his own aims, not the needs and rights of others. Locke also believed that a collective society was necessary to protect life, liberty, and property, and so long as ethical individuals enforced the system according to a rule of law, this was superior to a total state of nature. This form of collective protection often subtly threatened freedom, Thoreau believed, in a way that was just as damaging as political oppression, so he left for Walden to isolate himself from all of society.
Thoreau attempted to live an ideal, and to make his life meaningful, not living a slave to conventions…...

Thoreau (ethic Studies)
How Thoreau sees the government: His vision of justice

Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" was written after the Transcendentalist author was imprisoned for refusing to pay his taxes in protest against the Mexican-American War. In his essay, Thoreau demanded that America become once again a truly free government, for the people and by the people. Thoreau believed in minimal government, given that all government leaders tend to set policy based upon their own interests, not true justice. The Founding Fathers had wanted the American government to have relatively little power, to avoid the new nation descending into European-style tyranny. But Thoreau believed that America's new, expansionist policy was an example of the fact that America had forgotten that the government that governs best, governs least (or not at all).

Government should merely exist to serve the people, not its own ends, argues Thoreau. Given this idea, slavery is immoral, as it…...

Thoreau Quiet Desperation
Hard ork has always been a virtue in American society, and some say it comes from the country's Puritan heritage. If so, it could explain a great deal about how hard work has become a form of self-imposed slavery. Puritan society was highly judgmental, and society's opinion of a person could become a form of slavery; if one attempts to always fulfill what others expect of them. Henry David Thoreau, in alden, discussed the kind of self-imposed slavery that one can become a victim to when they fall into the trap that society has created.

hen discussing slavery, Thoreau explores a more diverse definition of the word than simply a legal term, he discussed the nature of slavery and its impact upon a person's psyche. According to Thoreau, who wrote alden while slavery was still legal in some places, feels that while what he called "Negro Slavery" was wrong,…...

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Works Cited

Cain, William. A Historical Guide To Henry David Thoreau. New York:

Oxford UP. 2000. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. London: Bibliolis Books. 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AwAbkjaAYsMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=

Nowadays especially the influence of the media has become so invasive and widespread that all people seem to do is just discuss about whatever the media portrays the world as being. I also feel that the media has succeeded in "dumbing down" people's thoughts, so that they do not even bother discussing anymore about politics or current events unless they are forced to. Instead many people today occupy themselves frivolous news surrounding celebrity gossip and entertainment. If people took the initiative towards breaking away from these superficial thoughts in order to start thinking, questioning, and investigating what is really happening with their lives and with the world, it can then be said that we have become the rational thinkers that Thoreau yearned for in society. Then we would no longer be engaged in boring and meaningless gossip and instead we would have the ability to not passively accept what…...

What does this have to do with the rest of paragraph 27?
The individual and the institution of the state cannot flourish when their interests are in competition: one of the 'seeds' must die.

33. In this paragraph, Thoreau talks about how he sees his neighbors in a new light after his night in jail.

After suffering the loss of his liberty, he sees how little his neighbors are willing to risk of their own security to see justice done.

Paraphrase each of these observations:

a. "I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends;"

I saw that the people amongst whom I lived were good in name only -- they spoke about the value of justice, but would not lift a finger to do promote justice.

b. "that their friendship was for summer weather only;"

They did good deeds only when it was convenient for them…...

Thoreau was a student of nature for virtually all of his adult life. During Thoreau's life, Cape Cod was a relatively unspoiled area rich with nature and people who worked closely in nature, such as farmers and fishermen. Those who lived on Cape Cod tended to be independent sorts, and Thoreau preferred their company to those of people engaged in commerce or other business-related occupations.
In his small book Cape Cod, Thoreau recounts his experiences on walking excursions around Cape Cod during the mid-1800's. In the process he described much about the unspoiled nature present throughout the Cape at that time.

In the opening chapter Thoreau talks about the ecology of living along the ocean: in the midst of a desperate sight - the wreck of a boat loaded with immigrants, most of whom drowned, he saw people gathering seaweed to use as fertilizer. The seaweed had been tossed up on the…...

Thoreau and Locke acknowledge the right of the people to renounce their allegiance to their government, what is the difference between their understandings of this right and what different conditions would warrant such an act?
When do citizens have the right to throw off the yoke of a sovereign and adopt a new form of governance that is more in keeping with the wishes and their needs of the majority of the populace? During the age of the Enlightenment in Great Britain, the philosopher John Locke wrote in his "Second Treatise of Governance," that all governments of the world must protect the life, liberty, and property rights of the common citizens. Locke wrote that if a government fails to honor this function, then its citizens had the right to revolt against the government, as the social contract between the governed and the government was not being honored. For example, if…...