The Philosophy of Henry Thoreau: Ethics, Politics, and Nature

by Professor Lester H. Hunt

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Henry Thoreau is widely considered to be one of the greatest nature writers, among whose best-known works are Walden and Walking. In this book, Lester Hunt shows that his writings have a compelling philosophical dimension as well.

Thoreau seldom argues for his ideas the way other philosophers do. Rather than setting up proofs designed to trap the reader into agreeing with him, he challenges the reader - by means of narratives, jokes, questions, and paradoxes -- to recognize possibilities previously unknown and unexplored.

Thoreau's own explorations led him to several distinctively philosophical theories: an intuitionist metaethics, an ethics based on virtue and self-realization, a politics that is fundamentally individualist and anarchist, and a secular religion in which nature is pre-eminent.
  • ISBN10 1350079030
  • ISBN13 9781350079038
  • Publish Date 17 October 2019
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Imprint Bloomsbury Academic