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Transcendentalism: 1.Divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. 2. In order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience.
Environmentalism: Concern about and action aimed at protecting the environment.

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.— Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", From Walden's Pond.

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Some dudes talking about Walden. Skip to 1:05

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The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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by Mark Linsenmayer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:03 - 99.9MB)

On Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854).

What is the appropriate life for a truly thoughtful person? Thoreau warns against getting ensnared by social bullshit like jobs and charity, and instead living simply, in direct contact with nature, relying as much as possible only on your own effort. His time in the woods on Walden pond was meant to be an experiment to see what life lived this way really has to offer.

Mark, Wes, and Dylan argue about how to best take Thoreau's brand of opinionating, and what the ethical upshot of the attempt to live naturally is supposed to be. Read more about the topic and get the book.

End song: "Green Song" by Mark Linsenmayer, originally released on The MayTricks (1992), newly remixed. Read about it.

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Filed Under: Tagged With: Podcast Episodes Ethics, Henry David Thoreau, naturism, philosophy blog, the simple life

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Episode 103: Thoreau on Living Deliberately

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by Mark Linsenmayer Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:03 - 99.9MB) On Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854). What is the appropriate life for a truly thoughtful person? Thoreau warns against getting ensnared by social bullshit like jobs and charity, and instead living simply, in direct contact with nature, relying as much as possible only on your own effort.

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After Henry's years at Harvard, Henry met Ralph Emerson who had some of the same views as Henry. Emerson introduced Thoreau to many publishers and soon became bestfriends with Henry. Emerson was a huge part of Thoreau's life. Most of the time Henry was living on Emerson's property, or even in his home.

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After Henry's stay at Walden's Pond, he stayed at Emerson's home to watch after the house while Emerson toured Europe. He had been battling tuberculosis decades earlier, but the disease caught up to him in 1861, so he decided to move back to Minnesota try to improve his health. As expected, his health conditions did not improve and Henry died May, 6, 1862.

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During his stay at Walden's Pond, a tax collector came to Henry and demanded him to pay years of unpaid taxes. After he refused because of his beliefs on slavery and war, he was thrown in jail. A day later, somebody paid his taxes for him. This experience didn't inspired him to deliver speeches, inspiring many people to stand up for their beliefs. Defy the laws that you don't agree with. It encouraged the idea of Civil Disobedience. Not defying government as a whole, but instead the certain aspects that may be corrupt. These speeches inspired his book Resistance to Civil Government.

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“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”

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Thoreau studied at Harvard for a couple years, but the standard degrees available, law, the church, business, and medicine, did not interest him. He took several sabbaticals before he got his degree. During one of them, he opened a grammar school in Concord. It was relatively successful, until his brother and co-foundered died. He closed the school, went back to Harvard, and completed his degree in education.

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His Famous two year stay at Walden's Pond began when Thoreau built a house on the pond in 1845. This house was on property that originally belonged to Emerson, his mentor. At this place, he wrote some of his most famous nature writings. He enjoyed the peacefulness of the land and was open to working a lot. He believed that when in the solitude of nature, a man was at his calmest and truest form.

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He was born in Concord Massachusetts in 1817. He was part of a modest New England family. Grew up with two older siblings, Helen and John, with a younger sister named Sophia. His father ran a pencil factory, pretty lame; however, it made money at the time.