Henry David Thoreaus Philosophical Ideas essays

Henry David Thoreau's Philosophical Ideas essays Henry David Thoreau is famous as one of the greatest living American Transcendentalist authors of the 19th century. Unlike Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau is famous for putting Emerson's Transcendentalist principles of self-reliance into action. Self-reliance and an immediate, human experience of nature and the natural world as spiritually beneficial were some of the core ideals of both the movement and of Thoreau's own personal One of the reasons Thoreau embarked upon his famous experiment of living in the woods, was to prove to himself that even in an increasingly complex industrial society such as the newly formed rail-road crossed, post- industrialized America, one was still able to live with one's hands. Thoreau advocated a simpler life, boiled down to life's most basic necessities and based upon the rhythms of daily life rather than the rhythms of commerce. Rather than mediating one's spirituality through a church, Transcendentalists believed that nature was the best teacher of God and the greater, spiritual and inner life of human kind. Thus, by living in and appreciating nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Thoreau hoped to achieve a better connection with his own spirituality and As so much of the basis of Thoreau's life and writings came from the sense of self-reliance he gained in nature, the importance of a healthy relationship with the natural environment is also critical to Thoreau's writings. Unlike many of his Transcendentalist colleagues, Thoreau did not believe in gazing at nature with a hazy, sentimental eye of mere appreciation. Rather, he believed in acknowledging nature's power, beauty, and also occasionally terrible and cruel behavior with respect. Thoreau believed that nature was not something to be preserved to help farmers and those whose lives depended upon it. Rather, nature was something that must ...