Emerson & Thoreau on Individualism & the State

Texts:

• Henry David Thoreau: Walden, The Maine Woods, Collected Essays and Poems, ed. Elizabeth Hall Witherell and Robert F. Sayre (Library of America, 2007)
• The Portable Emerson, ed. Jeffrey S. Cramer (Penguin, 2014)

Readings:

• Emerson, “Divinity School Address” (PE, 74–90)
• Emerson, “The Transcendentalist” (PE, 112–27)
• Thoreau, Walden, Ch. 1: “Economy”

Discussion Questions:

1. Emerson says that transcendentalism is merely “Idealism as it appears in 1842” (p. 112). So, what then does he mean by “idealism”?  And what particular shape does Emerson think it is taking in America in 1842?
2. A transcendentalist can also be defined as a thinker who aspires to the transcendent – or, in Emerson’s words, to “what is above him” (p. 75). So, what exactly is this thing up above, beyond the material world, that the transcendentalist seeks?
3. Walden begins not with the world of the things up there, but with the world of things down here – the needs of the body, and the quest “to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically” (p. 14). How does this compare to Emerson’s transcendentalism?  What overlaps do you find?  What divergences?

Readings:

• Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (PE, 150–72)
• Emerson, “The American Scholar” (PE, 56–73)
• Thoreau, Walden, Ch. 2: “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”

Discussion Questions:

1. What exactly does it mean, in Emerson’s words, to “trust thyself”? What kind of individualism is he advocating for?  How does this compare to other individualisms with which you might be familiar?  How does this emphasis on individualism comport with his focus on higher things?
2. Emerson thinks that in order to “trust thyself,” one needs to “know thyself” (p. 59). What does he mean by this?  What prevents American students from attaining this most valuable of all knowledge?  What prevents American students from realizing themselves as an “active soul” – which he explicitly says is the only thing in the world of any value? (p. 60)
3. What, according to Thoreau, does it mean to be “awake”? To “live deliberately”?  To “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” (p. 74)? Why exactly did he have to go to Walden to see whether and how this could be done?

Readings:

• Emerson, “Politics” (PE, 279–90)
• Emerson, “Spiritual Laws” (PE, 191–209)
• Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
• Thoreau, Walden, Ch. 11: “Higher Laws”

Discussion Questions:

1. How does Emerson define the State? What distinguishes a good state from a bad state? What is the end that the good state seeks to achieve?
2. What sort of laws can a state enact, according to Emerson? What exactly are “spiritual laws,” and how do they compare to ordinary laws?
3. “Civil Disobedience” is quite obviously the story of a conflict between higher laws and political laws. On what grounds did Thoreau choose to follow these higher laws rather than state laws? Was his choice justified?

Readings:

• Emerson, “The Over-Soul” (PE, 210–25)
• Emerson, “Uses of Great Men” (PE, 318–34)
• Thoreau, “Life without Principle”
• Thoreau, Walden, Ch. 12: “Brute Neighbors”

Discussion Questions:

1. What exactly is the “over-soul”? What sort of communication do great people have with it, according to Emerson?
2. What exactly is human greatness good for, according to Emerson? Why exactly does he speak of the “uses” of great men?  How are great people good for themselves?  How might great people be good for others?
3. How does Thoreau understand human greatness? What examples does “Life Without Principle” offer of human smallness?  What exactly does Thoreau mean when he asks us: “what is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom” (p. 889)?

Readings:

• Emerson, “The Fugitive Slave Law: Speech at Concord” (PE, 747–91)
• Emerson, “John Brown: Speech at Salem” (PE 401–403)
• Thoreau, “Slavery in Massachusetts”
• Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown”
• Thoreau, “The Last Days of John Brown”

Discussion Questions:

1. One could argue that neither Emerson nor Thoreau were ever really political until they were compelled to confront the challenge of slavery in 1850. How did the Fugitive Slave Law change them? What response did it prompt in them, and how does this response comport with the core principles of the transcendentalist?
2. Both Thoreau and Emerson were clearly fascinated by John Brown. Why? In what ways did he speak to the longings for and vision of human greatness?