Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Thoreau as Emersons Philosophical Equivalent
Thoreau partakes in transcendental hands-offness during his stay at Walden Pond. Through the archetypical devil chapters, he advocates a non-assertive macrocosm in the repeating of simplicity, simplicity, simplicity and kudos of his own minimalistic liveness style for the leisure. thus secured. power David Robinson labels Thoreaus stance as one of changing passiveness, a termination which neatly sums up the transcendentalist approach to intuiting disposition. Thoreaus appetite to receive [his] life as passively as the willow tree leaf that flutters all over the brook is other aspect of transcendentalism which he shares with Emerson. \nAs with the appreciation of character as a bearer of certainness as sanitary as the passive approach to nature, Thoreau does not radically protest from Emerson on the ternion funda mental t each(prenominal)ing of transcendentalism: effrontery and assertion of ones individualisticity, pursuit intuition. In Walden . he aspires to live deliberately, and thereby set himself apart from the mass of men [who] lead lives of pacify desperation. In opposition to Civil Government, speckle allowing that the installation of commonwealth is a come near toward a true respect for the individual, he maintains that a presidential term in which the absolute majority rule in all cases plenty not be based on justice as there is still little equity in the operation of masses of men. Thus, Thoreau is a champion of individual thinking and non-conformity, set him in co-occurrence with Emerson, who declares, Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. Thoreau as well as shares Emersons belief in non-consistency, as bear witness by his agreement, in Walden . with the Confucian nervous strain Renew thyself completely each twenty-four hour period; do it again, and again, and endlessly again. If there is two difference in the issue of liberty and independence in the midst of the two men, it is same to th e difference between them in regards to their corporation to nature (discussed above); Emerson deals abstractly with the ideals of non-conformity and non-consistency whereas Thoreau is deeply touch with actual contemporaneous experiences such as the cause of abolition in America, the Mexican War, and the poll tax. That said, however, the ideas which be Thoreaus actions in these matters among them a belief in non-conformity and confidence in ones intuitions are reorient with Emersons thoughts. \nThoreaus conception of transcendentalism is, thus, considerably mistakable to Emersons philosophy in regards to those ideas and beliefs which are more or less commonly associated with the movement. Emerson and Thoreau both share a view of nature as divinely inspired with intimacy of the world; they each believe in the need to intuitively grasp the lessons of nature, by means of a rule of dynamic passivity; finally, they believe in following these intuitions with confidence and s elf-assurance. The only variableness between the two authors as attest by the books is that Emerson is theoretical, while Thoreau, concerned with the application of his ideas, is experiential and empirical. That being said, Thoreau does not significantly re-envision Emersons central ideas regarding nature, intuition, and self-reliance. His philosophy is, therefore, Transcendentalist in the Emersonian mould. \n
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