Henry David Thoreau

Black Swan

Thoreau was certainly not a classical western philosopher, nor one that formally constructed his philosophy along the lines prescribed today, but it exists nonetheless, especially as exemplified by his Walden linked here.

He often writes with metaphor, and this one (Chapter 1) caught my eye:

"The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly."

Balf

I can't say I'm a fan. Am I right that his retreat to "nature" was broadly the equivalent of building a log cabin in the Phoenix Park for a year? It's a few years since I read Walden, but I mostly thought it was rather gassy. He was given to lines where he decried the burdens of the civilized life he returned to, after his year living beside an artificial pond.

"The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly."

Is persistence a fine quality? Could it even be displayed, if all we received was delicate handling?

Black Swan

Balf wrote: »

Am I right that his retreat to "nature" was broadly the equivalent of building a log cabin in the Phoenix Park for a year? It's a few years since I read Walden, but I mostly thought it was rather gassy. He was given to lines where he decried the burdens of the civilized life he returned to, after his year living beside an artificial pond.

Today ethnographic studies typically are shorter than a year, and researchers claim to have derived an emic perspective during their months in the field.

Joe1919

I think you have to see 'Walden' along with Whitmans 'leaves of grass' and of course Emerson as part of a great American philosophical, religious (e.g Unitarian) and literacy movement.'William James was considerably influenced by this movement (Emerson was his Godfather). Mark Twain I think as well. I often think that Yeats was also influenced by Walden e.g.
I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

I think Thoreau encouraged a 'back to nature' movement and a sort of revival of Paganism and pluralism, that we see in writers such as Richard Rorty (his romantic polytheism before his death) and movements such as the Rainbow gatherings.

Black Swan

Joe1919 wrote: »

I think Thoreau encouraged a 'back to nature' movement

The phenomenology of Thoreau evidences a first person perspective on the content and meaning of our natural surroundings. He challenges reductive materialism and functionalism in Walden noting that our objective pursuits may have reduced our ability to perceive, subjectively experience, and appreciate nature.

Balf

Joe1919 wrote: »

I think you have to see 'Walden' along with Whitmans 'leaves of grass' and of course Emerson as part of a great American philosophical, religious (e.g Unitarian) and literacy movement.

Perhaps, and I am partial to a little Emerson now and again. He can be quite uplifting. It's just it tends to be high on well-meaning rhetoric and low on actual content. It's a bit like listening to the rousing chorus of Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping".

Black Swan

We rely so often on metaphor to facilitate meaning (Gareth Morgan), whereas in Walden Thoreau suggests that we should observe nature by hearing “the language which all things and events speak without metaphor."